Asatru Folk Assembly - 1⧸25⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 29 - Heimdallr

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00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

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00:03:00.000 Hello, everyone, and welcome.

00:03:18.220 So, uh, I talked to you last week about the amazing, amazing first event that we had at

00:03:27.300 Sigurheim. But at the time it was just, you know, it was just me and Nathan has not yet been there.

00:03:33.200 But one of the people who joined me on that adventure was Witten Svahn, who is with us

00:03:38.640 tonight. So that's exciting. And before we get started in full, I'd kind of like to get his

00:03:45.660 take on that and have him tell about his experience. But before that, I want to get

00:03:52.800 is some top of the top of the show business um if you guys would like especially the stuff with

00:03:59.280 spawn we always get questions backed up if you want yours at the front of the line uh super chat

00:04:04.960 is available on entropy and that and donations on entropy are super appreciated while i'm talking

00:04:14.080 about donations i worked it out and folks seem to like when i digest or when i break uh afa

00:04:21.760 finances and stuff down into digestible bits so looking at it going through where we are at the

00:04:27.600 top of the year i know a lot of people are very excited about getting phrase hoff i am extremely

00:04:33.520 excited about that myself we're getting really close to hitting a couple of the markers we need

00:04:38.960 to get there but the first thing that needs to happen is we need to pay off the hoff that we

00:04:43.280 just got in july and that's new york's off so looking at that if every member of the astro

00:04:51.360 folk assembly donated 148 we would kill that debt immediately and be set and poised to uh

00:05:00.080 get started on a war chest and figuring out phrase hoff so just putting that out there

00:05:04.400 if nick will throw that number or that uh link up uh you guys that's the perfect spot to donate

00:05:14.160 towards getting that paid off i'm sure nick will have that link up here in a second but any of our

00:05:19.760 fundraising efforts can be found uh at the don't donate section of runestone.org

00:05:26.240 um yeah thinking about other stuff it's very quick it's coming up next weekend not this weekend mind

00:05:38.320 you but that that first weekend there in february we're having charming of the plow at new york's

00:05:43.280 off this is the first national event that york's off is hosting and this is going to become their

00:05:48.640 their yearly showcase event so if you can make it to that we would love to show off our amazing

00:05:56.700 Hoff to you guys if you're interested please talk to your if you're a member hey either way if

00:06:04.260 you're interested if you're interested at all incoming please talk to your local folk builder

00:06:07.780 and they can get you set up if you're a member they can get you all all squared away and if you

00:06:12.380 want to be a guest they can have that discussion and see about getting you vouched for so you can

00:06:16.520 show up either way we'd love to have you come out and i'd love to see everybody there like i said

00:06:21.800 coming up just under two weeks from today i also uh think our guest witness fawn might be joining

00:06:28.920 us for that it's fun are you going to join us for that yes absolutely excellent there you have it so

00:06:35.080 you get to uh talk to spawn in live and in person as well as me if you would like to um

00:06:41.480 um something else i guess to know and and we'll talk about this far out spawn might have those

00:06:48.980 dates and nick will probably definitely have those dates but in march which is coming up

00:06:54.980 surprisingly fast in march is ostara at thorshoff in linden north carolina so if that's something

00:07:02.860 you're interested in attending reach out to your local folk builder we would love to have you there

00:07:07.380 Like I said, same applies from your top. If you're a member, they can get you squared away.

00:07:12.420 If you're not a member, they can see about getting you vouched for if you want to come check them out.

00:07:17.480 I guess with that, Svon, could you tell the audience a little bit about, I guess, your perspective on how things went and what you think of the property for Sigerheim?

00:07:29.100 It was it was beautiful.

00:07:30.780 um i i love the structure of it the the openness of the of the beginning area um there's a huge

00:07:41.340 open space that we can you know build our foundations on um and then there's also an

00:07:48.860 escalating um kind of uh you know roadway that goes up high into the the the hillside or i mean

00:07:59.120 And it's far more than a hill, I would say, because it definitely – the pathway kind of switchbacks twice to get there.

00:08:10.060 And as it moves around, it encapsulates on the backside of this open space the perfect spot, I think, for where Tirsoff will be, overlooking the folk from on top high.

00:08:26.400 I think that would be an amazing thing.

00:08:29.120 course structure and things like that you know we have i think we have hopes but we gotta look at

00:08:35.440 you know sound decisions to make you know the pathway up there traversable uh by maybe vehicle

00:08:43.440 or shuttle or who knows um and uh other things but i mean there's so much potential there

00:08:51.680 um as far as spiritually coming there um seeing the land uh the the quietness the stillness of

00:09:00.800 the place um you know the the the boundaries were clear clean and so i felt very very comfortable

00:09:11.840 in the spot that we were in we i didn't see any ill omen i saw only good things i saw

00:09:20.800 When we were holding the bloat, there was lots of portents and signs.

00:09:25.120 I felt like that moment was highly faded.

00:09:28.400 But on the way up there, I mean, again, we saw just natural landscape, things of that nature.

00:09:35.580 We did see some of the remnants of the property from before as far as there was some natural loss of life from, I think, a couple of the animals there.

00:09:49.640 And so we saw their bones.

00:09:52.060 That was really, really nice.

00:09:54.620 I think in the sense that it was untouched, unmolested.

00:09:57.900 There wasn't a lot going on there.

00:09:59.180 Things weren't scattered or wrecked.

00:10:01.400 I think they were like laid to rest up above the pasture.

00:10:04.120 And so they were kept there.

00:10:06.940 We also saw that there were deer moving in and out.

00:10:09.540 It was high hunting ground.

00:10:11.800 And everything was amazing.

00:10:14.900 It was I'm downplaying it a little just to try to hold the status, the statusism in.

00:10:22.360 But it was it was beautiful and quiet and calm and cold by the road.

00:10:28.560 But as soon as we got inside into the hills, it was it was warm where everybody was taking off their jackets.

00:10:34.240 It was strangely so in the sense that we were freezing going in.

00:10:38.960 And then as soon as we kind of started moving our way in it, it warmed and it was quiet.

00:10:43.240 and the mist that was out near the road never really kind of encroached up into the woodlands

00:10:49.160 so it was beautiful yeah i hope everybody on here gets a chance to see it one of these days

00:10:54.700 beautiful beautiful spot we're still ironing out you know what a timeline is for getting our first

00:11:01.920 pioneers out there to uh live on the land and start getting it getting it settled we're going

00:11:07.900 to wait until we have that all paid off as until the afa can really start on our buildings that

00:11:12.960 want to do there um that said one of the first big projects we're going to need to do is figure

00:11:19.120 out that road it's very fortunate there's i believe an old logging path i think me calling

00:11:26.480 it a road at this juncture is a little bit ambitious but it's certainly wide enough for

00:11:31.200 a vehicle a jeep could make it up there currently if they were you know real savvy on how they went

00:11:37.920 about doing it but getting that road uh figured out and graveled and something that you know a

00:11:44.240 regular car can make it up it's never going to be a two lane super wide road up there but it'll be a

00:11:49.440 one lane road that vehicles can go all the way up to one day tears off up top so yeah it's it's

00:11:56.320 amazing so to the point of today's uh show today we're we're continuing our show on our holy uh

00:12:05.680 high gods and today we get to talk about heimdall and spawn if you could kind of

00:12:14.560 tell folks what they need to know about heimdall if they've never heard of him before or if they're

00:12:22.080 familiar and you know just need a refresher on some some key points before we get uh to taking

00:12:28.480 questions. The Lord Heimdall. I would say, first and foremost, it is best to look at him as

00:12:44.700 a direct and immediate connection to the middle world. He is the divine connection. He is the,

00:12:53.160 um, I would say almost the, the, uh, I, I, the, the words kind of, um, lost on them.

00:13:04.540 I want to say almost like as if to the divine world, he is the source of our

00:13:14.480 knowledge, a source of our, uh, of a great amount of our power. I believe he was the source of our

00:13:21.800 stories in the longest and furthest back ages. I think that he is the Lord that represents our

00:13:29.900 origins, the Lord that represents our evolutionary growth as a people. I think he is quintessentially

00:13:40.680 the god of the folk. Heimdall is extremely powerful, and he's kind of, again, the perfect

00:13:52.000 conduit, I believe, as a balance between natural law and cosmic order, as he is, and I say that

00:14:04.040 in a stasis sense, where I would say Thor is very dynamic

00:14:08.720 or very catalytic towards those two as he can move.

00:14:14.420 Heimdall represents the pinnacle point in which I think the physical realm

00:14:18.840 kind of connects umbilically.

00:14:23.500 Is that a good word to use?

00:14:25.980 I guess in the sense of the power and the life force

00:14:30.460 that comes from the heavenly realm.

00:14:34.040 to the middle world, especially in regards to faith, knowledge, the essence of devotion and piety,

00:14:43.840 the orthopraxy in which these things are kind of mitigated, are witnessed first by Heimdall,

00:14:50.140 heard first by Heimdall, and ultimately originate from him in his interactions with the folk

00:14:58.740 in earlier early on in our in our growth so that link is can't be can't be um you know understated

00:15:10.980 that that's how important there's a lot of mythological uh power in him as far as the

00:15:18.540 culmination of water and of fire, of light, and also, too, being the bridge, quite literally,

00:15:32.200 between the heavenly realm and the middle realm, but also, too, the bridge between the elevated

00:15:39.220 plane in which the gods reside upon in heaven and how it connects them to the heavenly plane

00:15:45.600 in and of itself, and that he is the threshold in which truly the most exalted mortals ever

00:15:56.500 to get into heaven will pass through. And also, too, he's the fairway in which the gods descend

00:16:08.220 from either of all to the well at the base of the tree in heaven to conduct their uh their judgment

00:16:16.640 on and their witnessing on mankind so he is always there he's watching even while the others are

00:16:24.380 mitigating um he is ever present but what uh sorry what is what does that mean though is i just it's

00:16:34.740 just hitting me like swan if you're talking to somebody who might be coming into this what does

00:16:38.080 that mean uh is he the god of something i don't think that we should look at our gods as like um

00:16:44.480 like some sort of game in which like he's the god of candles and you know denim jackets it's a it

00:16:52.560 doesn't work that way it's it instead it's understanding the the power structures of the

00:16:58.440 cosmos how they work together and why they are oriented the way they are and understanding that

00:17:04.080 he is a threshold to heaven and a connection point to the middle world through the the soul

00:17:10.820 and the mind um is first and foremost i think the most important thing that anybody coming in

00:17:16.920 to ausatru should know and that our devotion and our acts of devotion are witnessed first by him

00:17:24.840 because he is the one that initiated the growth and is seeing it quite as it plays out.

00:17:36.560 All right. Got a couple of questions in here lined up. Bodhi asks,

00:17:44.200 Witten Svahn, can you give us an etymology of Gjallarhorn? Also, why is Heimdallr the one to alert the gods of the beginning of Ragnarok?

00:17:56.120 Uh, well, first off, gyala, gyal, uh, means to scream, to roar. It's a, it's a, there's many poetic words for screaming and roaring. Um, just like we use those two words just now.

00:18:13.340 screaming, roaring, bellowing, echoing, but Gela means to resound and to

00:18:21.980 make a great cacophonous noise, and obviously the horn part, again, alludes to the blowing horn.

00:18:30.780 The blowing horn is a definitive symbol to Heimdall. It is, as Mjolnir is to Thor,

00:18:41.660 the yellow horn is to heimdall and uh throw up the uh graphic of heimdall and his jaller horn

00:18:51.140 go ahead it's fun yeah so i i i the the pure and most simple is the roaring or resounding uh the

00:19:01.760 the the cacophonous um horn that is um to resound from heaven and to answer the second part of that

00:19:12.640 question is is the resounding um part of heaven um the tone in which that is that that that horn

00:19:22.580 will be sounded is all in lieu of the coming of Ragnarok, the time in which the chaotic forces

00:19:33.320 of consumption and destruction and proto-matter, or the primordial, come to rise up and try to

00:19:45.080 tear down um the upper world and to uh to tear down the tree to tear down the walls uh of either

00:19:55.560 vault where the gods uh upon high beyond the heavenly mountains or the heavenly mountain

00:20:01.720 where heimdall resides he will sound that horn and um that will hearken the gods to awaken to

00:20:10.840 release the blessed souls, the soul might of humanity, of the humans that have ascended will

00:20:18.120 be brought forth with the gods to meet those forces in the great battle.

00:20:29.400 All right.

00:20:32.900 Uncle Krampus asks, Witten's Fawn, Heimdallar has been attested to as the

00:20:40.460 whitest God. What do you perceive this description to reference?

00:20:47.440 Well, yeah, they call it the white house, the white God. A couple of things. I think first

00:20:58.120 and foremost, understanding white had many different meanings, especially in the Nordic

00:21:04.160 period. Obviously, it meant unblemished. It meant pure or to be unsullied. So I think in reference

00:21:16.940 to that, it is first and foremost to be aware that that's most likely the meaning is that

00:21:23.200 he is unsullied, pure and divine in intention, a paragon, if you will, of the gods,

00:21:33.440 Especially of the union between the gods.

00:21:38.940 But there are other things as well, I think, that should be noted.

00:21:42.580 Now, I don't think, like, for instance, they used in reference to the whiteness of, like, white Christ during the conversion times and red Thor.

00:21:52.240 There was a lot of that going on. 0.65

00:21:54.260 And I think that in that reference would be very similar to the way that we use the word like lily, like lily livered or, you know, like a lily handed man, a man that, you know, doesn't have calluses on his hands.

00:22:07.960 I don't think that reference was implied at all. And foremost, I think when we speak of the gods in the stories, I'm of the belief that the gods predicated the stories. They started them. We know that they change or kind of translate over time.

00:22:30.440 There's nothing stating that the gods, you know, that the Adas are the pure word and singular truth of the gods.

00:22:36.500 No, I think that they entirely understood that the stories were going to change as they were told or as meter was constructed.

00:22:45.300 But I think they also, as being gods, foresaw many applicable meanings in things that may not have even applied to our ancestors,

00:22:56.840 that they may have actually evolved in an understanding of our time.

00:23:01.400 And so, again, that leaves a lot to question.

00:23:06.000 It's like, what exactly does it mean in our time?

00:23:08.580 But we have a story directly connecting Time Doll to the folk and their evolution.

00:23:21.820 um and to say otherwise would imply a universal sense that um perhaps um and i've seen this

00:23:30.740 played out where where they try to say no this is a story that that states the classes of nordic

00:23:38.380 society and in some of those names yes that would be something that they understood but also you can

00:23:45.200 see that it has far deeper meaning when you look at who exactly he is interacting with. When we

00:23:53.800 talk about great-grandmother and great-grandfather and grandfather and grandmother and father and

00:24:00.040 mother, we see this as a time. And I hope to go into that a little bit more about how Heimdall

00:24:05.920 is connected to time um so yes well we we see it as the the idea that if we are as folk he is the

00:24:21.180 god of the folk he is the white house could we apply that in modern context absolutely i don't

00:24:26.460 see why we couldn't i don't see why we have to be only forced to look at the gods in the stories of

00:24:33.120 the Adas and have those meanings. But I think first and foremost, it represents his purity and

00:24:40.780 his strength in his being, his connection point. He is the white threshold. He is the clear, 0.98

00:24:51.100 the bright, the golden light of the threshold between the middle world of the material and

00:24:58.860 Yeah, I think that's, you know, colors in terms of symbolic language is a deep study

00:25:12.240 within itself, but white is very, very often, at least in a northern context, associated

00:25:19.380 with purity, with nobility, with, like, something is white if it is unblemished, if it's pure,

00:25:27.220 it's unsullied it's white and i think that's one of the one of the things when they talk about

00:25:34.180 particularly high caste individuals or folks that are you know of royalty or or are visually

00:25:42.020 superior they they talk about like the white limbs they talk about them being very white and

00:25:48.740 radiant in appearance and i think that's something i think there's also something to be said about

00:25:54.740 you know the the light that people see when they're having a near-death experience that

00:25:59.620 white overwhelming light that they go towards um i think that speaks a little bit about the

00:26:04.900 threshold nature of heimdall can you speak on heimdall the gatekeeper versus loki the exiled

00:26:14.020 at ragnarok swan you got something to say about that yeah actually i could have i kind of forgot

00:26:21.460 a little bit as I was going, but yes, that, that is again, the language of our stories that, uh,

00:26:29.120 and you, and you nailed it right there, Ali, is that, um, the, the, the threshold, the divine

00:26:35.580 point of connection between the material and heaven, uh, is, um, he, he never fails in his

00:26:45.380 duty, he goes and stops the threat before it can lay itself upon the fields of work where the

00:26:53.400 shining plain where the gods reside. They ride forward and he stops the imminent threat, the

00:27:01.020 point, the absolute focal poisonous point, which is Loki, which is the kinslayer, the slayer of

00:27:10.800 his of his blood brother's son that you know the um the detriment to the gods the one that's that

00:27:16.580 was kind of folded in um unwittingly so and and uh so to what loki represents in all things

00:27:27.340 heimdall is the opposite and uh this doesn't mean and i think a lot of people uh well well

00:27:36.360 you guys are just turning loki into a devil and well it's that's not entirely true in the sense

00:27:45.360 that we don't took take heimdall into one singular god of goodness and loki into one singular element

00:27:52.080 of evil there's lots of um you know components to both sides because nature doesn't work in

00:28:00.940 singularity but what loki is is the the center point of that or at least the the dynamic point

00:28:09.040 that travels from the world underneath to the middle and then to the upper it shows it in the

00:28:16.540 language that he is that driving force and so what what stops the driving force is the immovable

00:28:24.080 object, if you will. All right. Our next question is, would you say that Heimdall's creation of the

00:28:38.280 caste system was the caste system described in ancient India? I think this is a fascinating

00:28:45.260 topic that a lot of people have had a lot of thoughts for years on. What do you think, Svon?

00:28:50.640 Yeah, I think that the application of the caste system in the time that we were in the Nordic period when it was being told, that caste system applied in relation to a couple of things.

00:29:09.400 One, it was easily digestible by the people hearing the stories.

00:29:13.000 However, when we go back and we see maybe like multiple caste systems, we see that there's the presence of the three again, which is deeply connected to our lore.

00:29:29.540 So there's three cycles that go through. And again, I'm alluding to the story itself when you speak about great-grandmother, great-grandfather, so on and so forth, going back, we see a point of evolution in the groups as they go forward.

00:29:54.120 So I think that it was applied to the caste system of the time, but there was clearly more than three levels at the time in Nordic culture, and you see that three is still being maintained because that's the mythic language from the oldest, from the gods, and it has a deeper meaning than simply just the caste system of the time.

00:30:21.600 I mean, when we're talking about the Thralls and the Carls and the Jarls.

00:30:26.020 And you could take that into a lot of different ways, too. 0.54

00:30:28.840 But I'm of the belief that even back then, our ancestors understood the three castes in that sense.

00:30:37.260 But there were more, you know, when we speak of like the spots between a free man and a Jarl, like being a Thane or, you know, a bonded man.

00:30:53.160 um there's lots of different other classes but they the three was specific and i think that's

00:30:58.840 connected to the um the the true deeper meaning of the stories is that uh

00:31:07.640 as far as the caste systems go in india i mean again our ancestors understood

00:31:14.760 hierarchy and that was digestible but i think it has a deeper meaning

00:31:18.120 all right um

00:31:23.800 sorry guys i had to step away during spawn's dissertation on the cast system

00:31:31.020 heard my daughter screaming horribly like something was terribly wrong

00:31:35.760 it wasn't she was just misbehaving in his two but i still had to go check it out

00:31:40.320 um uh next i've always read into heimdall and loki's turbulent relationship as a sort of

00:31:49.640 dichotomy between cosmos and chaos have i been reading into that correctly if so could you

00:31:56.400 expand on that i know you've already touched on this briefly spawn but uh yeah could you

00:32:01.880 expand on that that's getting to the point where i don't know this is great i don't even need to

00:32:06.800 be here. They're, they're, they're, they're pinging off on things. You guys are getting

00:32:11.740 it for real. You're, you're getting it. Um, yeah. Cosmos, uh, cosmic order or, well, remember

00:32:18.160 too, Thor is the, the, the, the catalystic moving point of cosmic order and, and, uh,

00:32:28.680 natural law. Heimdall is the stasis point, the pinnacle point, the point that, that doesn't

00:32:36.240 move he's kind of like i would say like the equivalency of maybe like the north star of heaven

00:32:41.040 as opposed to the the north star of the middle worlds um he but it's it's more about a spiritual

00:32:49.060 guidance or uh a beacon back to the the the place where the gods reside and in that he he's

00:32:57.540 assemblance of uh everything that gods represent uh against or or standing up unmoving against

00:33:07.060 that which is or ultimately becomes the malignant opposite of the gods so yeah i mean you're you're

00:33:15.120 right on it as far as yeah i don't know if you have anything more on that one else here um i mean

00:33:22.720 no it kind of is what it is and i think everybody gets it you've been over it a few times what i do

00:33:30.480 think and um i'd like you to touch on a little bit more with folks is

00:33:36.320 is heimdall's vigilance in guarding that entry point into the heavenly realm

00:33:46.480 Um, one of the things that that's fascinating is his ability to his sharp hearing and his keen eyesight. He is, he is a God custom built for for vigilant century duty for being always on guard the all father, in order to see things and know what goes on, he sends his ravens out.

00:34:10.480 heimdall just has to you know use his his vision and his senses because he's so very attuned to

00:34:17.040 those things um do you have any thoughts on that or the significance of that's fun yes i well i

00:34:24.320 think that first and and foremost it is to be understood that heimdall is born of the world

00:34:30.640 or born of the middle so i don't necessarily uh i mean i do mean the earth but i also mean

00:34:37.760 the middle, the material, the physical and metaphysical that resides in the middle.

00:34:46.280 He is of it, and so therefore he can never really release himself of it. I think that there are many

00:34:52.360 gods that are of this, and I don't think that the intention is to be released, but in essence

00:34:57.060 that they are brought up and placed. Heimdall is placed as a figurehead on the edge of heaven

00:35:03.080 because of that connection that deep connection um from the primordial which is i would say the

00:35:11.260 ocean or the water um that primordial connection that he has is the perfect reason why he is the

00:35:18.280 figurehead between the heavenly realm and the middle realm because what it when when he sees

00:35:24.380 um and it you know he says here he um he hears the grass growing on the earth and he can hear

00:35:30.300 the wool growing on sheep. What we're talking about too is like an elapsment of time. I've

00:35:36.460 always taken it to mean that that connection is that he is separate from, but can always

00:35:44.000 equally and instantly see the machinations of time in the middle world. Unlike, I think,

00:35:52.280 that the gods see the middle world through the well. And of course, I think there's a

00:36:00.100 counts of them coming through and doing things. And I'm not going to say how that works because

00:36:04.980 I wouldn't be a fool to say as much. But what I think is being alluded to in the stories is that

00:36:10.600 Heimdall has an instant ability. There's no disconnect between the two. And in so doing,

00:36:19.680 he is always kind of, again, like a one side of him is always connected to that,

00:36:27.300 to the passing of time the rotation of thing and and of things and I don't mean just like time as

00:36:32.820 in time and a clock but how all things are moving and all things create these these senses of time

00:36:37.960 and um he has that connection um which keeps him in correlation I think it's it's uh why

00:36:48.020 when we give uh when we give bloat there's always reference to Heimdall as to um you know uh even

00:36:56.980 if it's just in the first gift of smoke it's given to the land spirits but it's also given

00:37:01.060 to heimdall because it's more or less not it's a witnessing moment that we know that above all it

00:37:07.460 is being witnessed by him um so yes i think his his constant connection to um the middle world

00:37:21.460 Now, some people have speculated that the birth of his birth, of his nine mothers, the nine maidens, the nine waves, some people have related that to perhaps maybe epochs of time or waves of like some sort of manifestation of the creation of the universe or quite literally water.

00:37:44.660 Um, and I think an interesting point that we have to understand is there's nothing wrong with saying yes. Like, uh, is, is he born of the water? Yes. Is he born of cosmic waves of epochs and time? Yes.

00:37:58.800 Because I think that the gods understood that as we were at this moment beginning to turn towards them again, we were going to have ideas and, you know, predications towards them that we would want to further investigate.

00:38:20.400 i think they saw that coming and they knew that was was on its way and so that that applies a lot

00:38:26.960 when when i'm dealing with the with the stories i i'm sure we're actually gonna i'm seeing some

00:38:32.800 of the questions over here and i think we're gonna i'm gonna beat on that drum again so i won't beat

00:38:37.680 on it now well i think that's that's really important for everybody to make note of are

00:38:45.200 the mythic language especially when it comes to descriptions

00:38:53.920 it's it's deep with layers it's multi-layered just because one thing is true doesn't mean a

00:39:01.440 there's not a higher truth and even a higher truth beyond that to the symbols the symbols

00:39:06.480 are multi-layered and i think that's one of the beautiful things about our myths are

00:39:14.400 they're written in a way that they paint a really cool picture to explain something to very new

00:39:22.480 people or to children but as you grow in your faith that picture you see the depth you get to

00:39:29.600 see the illusions that the picture makes to bigger truths to other truths that affect life

00:39:36.320 and as you grow and you come back to our myths at different times and different seasons of your life

00:39:42.800 you will realize different truths that our myths convey from your vantage point at the

00:39:49.600 different stages in your life and so i think that's absolutely important that we know

00:39:57.360 those layers of understanding are built upon that mythic language but also one of the things

00:40:02.720 that i just think is interesting i don't really have a i don't know a point with this other than

00:40:08.160 it's fascinating to me is to see how our gods get wisdom and get knowledge of things um you know

00:40:16.880 some gods get wisdom and knowledge of things by drinking from a well by consuming something

00:40:22.480 by seeing into a different source by sending out ravens and having them come back and report

00:40:28.400 by having prophetic visions of things by by knowing what's to come and not speaking

00:40:33.520 by learning, say their magic, to conjure the dead to speak to them and tell them mysteries.

00:40:41.880 And it's interesting that Heimdall's approach is a very physical and organic way of gaining

00:40:47.820 knowledge. He literally sees it with his keen eyes and hears it with his ears. He perceives

00:40:53.180 it in a different way. And I think that way of gathering knowledge, because our gods,

00:41:00.540 to us certainly are all knowing universally in the in the cosmos are not all knowing

00:41:07.620 they're wise beyond our our wildest conception of wisdom yet they still have to to attain to go out

00:41:15.500 to win wisdom to win knowledge to win these things so i think that that's just fascinating i don't

00:41:22.380 you know necessarily think there's a point to it other than it's just something really interesting

00:41:25.900 to think on that uh the description of heimdall kind of inspires me to think on well uh one one

00:41:32.300 other thing too the the figurehead point and something you had just said kind of um hit me

00:41:37.500 is again the the figureheading point of where heimdall sits on heaven i i i think that when

00:41:44.700 we were discussing earlier and we were talking about bragi as in the sense of sound and eve

00:41:50.940 iduna as the sense of light the the prismatic nexus point of sound and light both with his

00:41:59.500 gyalar horn and with his eye and the very rainbow bridge the bivros bridge the glimmering path

00:42:06.780 there's a lot to be said as our understanding of these things become he is the prismatic

00:42:12.700 center point in which all of those cosmic forces descend down into the middle world

00:42:21.360 and so if you could see all of that funneling and all that power of the gods it comes through him

00:42:29.640 at that moment and then like what you had said he then stepped forward and walked

00:42:36.240 you know walked into the world very few gods uh do this in a in a sense i think that's why a lot

00:42:45.340 of times there is um some wonderings or i think a lot of uh leveling of ideas that that perhaps

00:42:51.800 heimdall and and uh odin are are one in the same and i i don't believe this but um but i could see

00:42:59.320 because again it's such a rare and interesting point especially when uh going from a stasis

00:43:05.960 throne to a dynamic throne so quickly and and and even more so rarely for heimdall that it would

00:43:13.640 it would be highly suspicious but again seeing um that and what i mean by a prismatic point

00:43:22.920 and this is something i just wanted to to get at is perhaps our ancestors did not see heimdall as

00:43:27.720 a prismatic point. But we know now about light and its differentiational space and how it works.

00:43:35.240 And suddenly Heimdall becomes not less, but more. And I think that our stories do that quite often.

00:43:43.280 When we talk about the rotation of the earth with day and night, and there are two horses,

00:43:49.520 Auwarker and Alsvid, for the sun, but there is only one for the moon. And I think people could

00:43:54.600 say, oh, well, that's speculating about the time in which the moon is moving across. But yet out

00:44:01.780 of all those three bodies, two of them rotate upon their axis and one doesn't. That has a

00:44:08.580 high significance of symbolic language that I don't know if our ancestors truly understood,

00:44:15.380 but that the gods knew we would look and see deeper into those things.

00:44:20.460 um just want to take a second to acknowledge i see jackie over in the chat room it's great to

00:44:27.780 have you here jackie is our dutch member joining us so that's uh it's great to see you on here and

00:44:34.480 i hope you enjoy the program sam asks how do you feel about his depiction in popular media

00:44:41.040 as a black god what are your thoughts on that swan well i mean first and foremost it's it's

00:44:49.140 euhemoric right out the gate all of it is so like to make the gods mortal this is just

00:44:55.620 modern man's euhemoric symbolizing of making the gods into mortal men it's it's

00:45:03.140 saxo grammaticus of hollywood you know um they they still carry some of the symbology

00:45:11.300 uh in their perhaps um if they're speaking about like uh marvels thor's you know um purity uh but

00:45:22.000 it's all it's it's just a it's it's you hemorrhock knee-jerk lowbrow entertainment and it's i think

00:45:31.560 it's okay that we just admit that right out the gate all around um and and some people can argue

00:45:37.420 that it has use in the sense that it keeps the the names of the gods around but that wasn't

00:45:46.560 needed by hollywood and and they're still here i mean they've they've survived conversion times

00:45:51.040 they have survived much because they can't be separated from us so what you end up having is

00:45:56.760 these this just kind of troglodyte kind of interpretations of the gods and when we talk

00:46:04.140 about the black heimdall um i remember when this was really being discussed it's it's a hot hot

00:46:13.900 hot topic but the question is is did they do it deliberately um and that is left you know

00:46:21.660 i think many of us would say yes they did it deliberately they made the white house black

00:46:26.540 black because they just thought that would be funny to do who are they hmm there's a lot of a

00:46:32.380 lot of uh you know scratching on that one but uh at the same time you know again it the all along 0.90

00:46:43.840 the way the the story whether it's you know um you know i i'm still upset that they made odin

00:46:51.680 uh you know they let a welshman play odin no no i'm only kidding no what i'm saying is is that

00:46:59.680 it's kind of a moot point uh at from the gate it's you know they're all they're the story of

00:47:07.780 you know Thor and Loki being brothers all of it is just a big trough of garbage so

00:47:15.840 it's just one more thing on top of another thing it's a a friend of mine you know said it best is

00:47:23.980 They're trying really hard because, you know, when you see something that is in place that's not supposed to be there, it surprises you.

00:47:33.660 If it's a bad thing and it's in the place it's supposed to be, nobody's going to notice.

00:47:37.520 So they got to, you know, they got to really, you know, try to shake things up and create that stuff.

00:47:44.760 And I really don't give much credence in giving it value.

00:47:49.500 Do I agree with – or I know that's not in the question.

00:47:52.840 but i mean yeah it's travesty but the whole thing is a travesty i i it's it's one of the things i

00:48:00.040 think i think people get very bit out of shape about it certainly the choice of casting in the 0.94

00:48:05.400 movie i have no doubt oh this god is known as the whitest let's get a a negro gentleman to play this

00:48:12.040 guy um i think that obviously is what occurred but people get if they're not familiar with the source 0.84

00:48:21.480 material people act like this is just some intentional slap at the adas or something

00:48:27.560 it's not uh this is based on a comic book that's been around since the 1960s

00:48:33.400 early on you know thor's as guardian companions have always included a chinaman um it's just a

00:48:41.240 a thing of of that now initially when uh i forgot about the on there you go so

00:48:47.960 So initially when this came about, it wasn't an intentional disrespect to people practicing

00:48:57.020 Ausatru, because I don't think that the creator, you know, I don't think that Stan Lee thought

00:49:01.760 anybody did practice Ausatru.

00:49:04.040 I think this is a way that Marvel Comics has always done with religions other than Abrahamic

00:49:12.600 faiths in depicting their gods in, you know, as almost in a sci-fi-like fantasy way. And that's

00:49:21.840 what it is. And it's kind of silly. I mean, the comic book movies don't really affect me in a 0.97

00:49:27.020 faith-based way, other than it's obviously insulting when they intentionally misrepresent

00:49:32.260 something like that. Because of the time the movies were made, I certainly think that's,

00:49:38.480 you know a fun little woke slap in the face thing but at the end of the day i don't i don't think

00:49:44.800 serious people take that as a representation of our myth structure in any kind of a serious way

00:49:51.760 um i don't really have strong feelings one way or another about that i've never found that to

00:49:56.720 be some powerful gateway to get people involved in also true nor does it really i don't know

00:50:03.760 caused me to gnash my teeth over much um shay asks in what ways might we gift to heimdallar

00:50:11.440 with what names might we call him uh what are your thoughts on that's fun um

00:50:18.800 gifting to heimdall again i i um i always prefer to gift in smoke and in the gift of um a burning

00:50:33.120 like, uh, like an incense or, or, or something of a, of a burning and smoking nature, whether

00:50:38.840 it's like, I know some people, I don't know if you would consider bay leaves to be, um,

00:50:43.800 incense, but I, or guess, I guess any item that is like that, but, um, I prefer oftentimes I

00:50:50.740 embark on bloat with the first initial, uh, lighting of the, the, the resills or the, the

00:50:57.980 censor, uh, with smoke as the first gift. And it's a point of witnessing is, is the ideas that

00:51:04.860 the, the light and the fire, um, that is laid out for the, the function of giving, um, sacrifice

00:51:16.380 always to Heimdall is the, you know, the first of the smoke. Um, but I mean, as far as, you know,

00:51:24.640 need uh and and um anything you put time into because remember sacrifice is about

00:51:32.440 about the the time that you take to to make it the time that you take to procure it again just

00:51:38.500 like as i was talking about going forth and gaining that there there is that's about creating

00:51:45.540 both weird and sacrifice that there is uh movement towards it um that there's something given to

00:51:53.760 attain and then then to to simply gift it up um specifically um i mean you could say it's like

00:52:05.140 i i we were talking about this once before is like uh the the highest gifts to heimdall would

00:52:11.200 be uh you know a ram or a seal but we're you know in in relation to his references in the stories

00:52:18.960 No, I think first and foremost is actually correct timing is probably one of the best gifts.

00:52:28.520 So we have our gift cycle built around our wheel of the year, and what that is is not – I mean, it is a reason to get together.

00:52:39.260 But it is also an alignment where we're weirding ourselves in the alignment of the gods at designated points throughout the year to maintain that alignment.

00:52:49.660 And I think that so basing your devotional or devotional faith to Heimdall, giving it in proper timeliness or maintaining timeliness all around to all of the gods is in an essence an act and devotion to him.

00:53:10.840 I often talk about at the end of Yule, after the twelfth night, the morning after is like a silent prayer to Heimdall that all in alignment has been made, that all things have been kept and all promises made, and that we continue on in this new year with determination.

00:53:30.680 It's, again, devotion through witness and devotion through action.

00:53:35.460 Um, as far as, uh, names, some of the things that I mean, if you're talking about old Norse, there are, you know, obviously, uh, um, you know, like his referencing to his golden teeth, if you will.

00:53:54.280 And I think there's actually a mythological language to that as well.

00:53:59.440 But, you know, we have, you know, Gulintani.

00:54:05.460 Halinskivi is one that I don't, I can't find any attestment to.

00:54:10.720 But, you know, the one who bears the horn, the one who affixes his eyes, the one who stands upon heaven's mountain, the one who burns the brightest from the waves, the flame upon the waves.

00:54:25.260 There's many names that I oftentimes call him the singer of the runes, the teacher, the teacher of the folk, the lord of the folk, the white house.

00:54:35.640 There's a lot of names that can be leveled upon Heimdall, and Heimdall, the name itself has a lot of meaning as well.

00:54:47.700 But I would say saying it out physically, that's important.

00:54:53.880 You know, I'm going to go give it a different way.

00:54:57.380 In what ways might we gift to Heimdall?

00:55:01.880 Piously and sincerely?

00:55:03.320 um honestly i think we overthink uh there's a point like okay a couple of things on making

00:55:13.380 offerings to the gods

00:55:14.780 the gods don't need our stuff so a lot more goes into it than the value or the substance being

00:55:28.360 offered offering to a god is very much a symbolic gesture and by saying it's symbolic doesn't make

00:55:35.800 it any less important but it shifts the emphasis from the the substance of the item to the thought

00:55:42.600 behind the item um so if you want to give heimdall something that is connected to one of his

00:55:53.160 myths or connected to an ancient time or an ancient place that you think is significant

00:56:00.040 your act of doing that is what makes that that offering special so if that's what you want to

00:56:06.440 do i think that's wonderful if you don't have that context if you don't know what to get him

00:56:12.520 because you're not you know a lore scholar and you don't have some unique point of history that you

00:56:18.120 think would would honor him then the default is do something that you think would be a respectful

00:56:25.320 thing to offer him um you know a child may think something very different than a grown man a person

00:56:31.640 who you know is a is a soldier might think of a much different offering than a teacher might think

00:56:38.440 of um any of those things are fine the point is that you're making an offering out of devotion

00:56:45.320 and piety and that it's done with reverence. I don't think that, you know, Heimdall is limited

00:56:52.920 to, you know, a small list of items that the Lord tells us he was associated with in some way,

00:56:59.700 nor do I think that about any of our gods. But I think the key is that you're offering something up

00:57:04.860 out of respect and out of sharing and out of, you know, piety, kindness, and love out of your heart.

00:57:15.320 and as to what to call him spawns right you can you can find in our edic lore you know fitting

00:57:26.160 kennings that ancient scholars used to use and that's great um you could get clever and come up

00:57:34.120 with some kennings of your own that are that you think are are clever and that you think honor

00:57:38.880 heimdall but you don't have to call them something special and you don't have to

00:57:43.560 have your naming of him be some source of you know creative poetry if you do that's great but if you

00:57:52.780 don't it's not as though the gods need that what i think is important again is that in his naming

00:58:01.720 you speak it with reverence you know i like to to oftentimes put a qualifier in front of that

00:58:10.680 dignifies a deity like lord heimdall or you know some kind of a title that reflects their

00:58:18.920 their magnificence or their their uh their greatness in comparison to us in like in a

00:58:25.480 way to elevate them but i don't think that you're there's not a i know i'm kind of

00:58:31.960 to stumble it over this here because it's a big concept to try to convey it in words, but

00:58:36.300 religion is about relationships and it's not a math project or like a math problem.

00:58:49.600 It's not like there's a secret formula that if you get it correct, it works,

00:58:53.240 but if you're off here or there, then it fails. Like, you know, you do an equation and it's either

00:58:59.700 100 right or it's 100 wrong when you're dealing with matters of faith and religion you're in

00:59:08.180 you're literally sharing gifts with our gods you're giving a gift to someone

00:59:13.460 in any experience you have in your life i don't think you can think of one where you need to have

00:59:19.540 a certain magical uh formula to how you name the person you give a gift to or you know a select

00:59:27.620 list of you know three items you can use to give a gift and anything outside of that they'll feel

00:59:33.460 insulted by um and so i think that that's a really good default position from us to go on

00:59:40.500 now our relationship with our buddy or even our relationship with our our grandparents

00:59:46.340 isn't the same as our relationship with a god but it's perhaps the closest we can come to

00:59:52.740 understanding that or you know a gift to a to a king or to a sovereign you know figuring out

01:00:00.340 a human relationship and then moving from there i think is a good way to

01:00:04.820 mentally approach the act of making an offering to a god

01:00:10.660 um next up question what do you think about any connection between

01:00:16.660 uh algies elhaz and heimdall heimdall could be seen as a protector of the vey yes i've read

01:00:29.000 algies is connected to worship but the other word uh means wound what wound whose wound

01:00:36.360 what do you make of that spawn um going back to the first part about uh he said algies and

01:00:46.280 was there yeah algies and and l has the yeah okay sorry just clarifying well and i mean the

01:00:54.500 protector of the vey too there's there's references clearly denoting uh both um thor and and

01:01:02.260 tier as connected to the, uh, temples, to the strength of the temples, the protecting of the

01:01:09.040 Vae. Um, but if we're talking about the, the Vae stead of the gods, yes, then yes, absolutely he is.

01:01:17.620 Um, well, the oldest, the oldest meaning that we have of Algees is from the Anglo-Saxon rune poems,

01:01:29.020 which were written down in the 10th century and it speaks of something that scholars to this day

01:01:34.380 still don't um entirely agree on the the elk sedge uh and the um what exactly does that mean is it a

01:01:44.780 is it a particular type of uh you know marsh wart or herb or bush or shrubbery that protects the

01:01:52.700 water. There's been a lot of speculation on that. And, you know, of course, it's not present in the

01:02:00.640 younger. But of modern times, and I think insights based on people that have studied the runes,

01:02:13.480 they correlate it deeply with the connection between the divine and mortals, or I would say

01:02:21.220 more importantly the connection that mortals are attempting to attain with the divine hence the

01:02:27.540 upper portioning the upper reasoning and again this this applies to uh what i was saying about

01:02:34.100 the devotional uh reciprocity the the faith-based um connection point and i bring that to the again

01:02:43.700 point i made earlier about alignment about proper alignment with the the the gods of the folk the

01:02:50.180 folk soul and the correlations of of all that that rotates and moves um a direct correlation between

01:03:00.180 no but if you feel that heimdall's representation as the the focal point of heaven the prismatic

01:03:09.620 threshold the the part where that all descends down um i think that algies kind of does represent

01:03:18.500 the reconnection back up and the benefit of that alignment what do the gods give us in that

01:03:26.080 alignment whether it's a higher understanding a sense more of place and confidence in our

01:03:33.700 our fate and the way that we are our people are hope uh as well i mean there's many things that

01:03:41.160 are are are reciprocated in that um reaching up there is a an equal um

01:03:48.900 i guess attainment that comes from that um but yes i do agree he is the protector of the vey

01:03:56.620 he is that threshold but i think it's also a representative of us attempting to attain

01:04:03.400 that which is above us higher than us and that that that comes in uh devotion piety and then

01:04:12.580 in that that devotion and piety turns into higher thinking higher acting uh and that starts the

01:04:19.940 process that i think that gods ultimately want us as a people to undertake uh yeah i'm not sure

01:04:29.500 the rune um wound um correlation or where you're where you're finding that the word somehow means

01:04:40.140 uh means a wound so you know maybe if we find out some more information on that that's something we

01:04:46.380 could speak to a little bit better i absolutely think esoterically as far as runes of protection

01:04:54.100 algees is always always big on that list um i think that's great to use that as a symbol

01:05:04.220 of heimdallar or as a you know a talisman of protection or as an idea of protection of the

01:05:09.900 sacred protection of the bay um i think one of our biggest correlations with understanding algees as

01:05:17.220 position of worship uh is the algae's stance or the stance of of man standing up with his arms

01:05:26.340 outstretched towards the heavens and i think that's a uh a fundamental visual of that

01:05:34.900 but if you see that in different uh futharks beyond protection it you know the the upward

01:05:41.380 returned algaes is the life rune, whereas the opposite, and I don't know if maybe this is where

01:05:47.780 some of the conjecture about wounding comes in, when you see an opposite of that, the year rune,

01:05:53.220 or in other systems, the death rune is an algaes upside down. And we'll use this, we'll use this

01:06:00.220 today at our interment sites of AFA members at the three people whose remains are interred

01:06:11.600 at our Hoff sites, their tombstones, I'll read, starts with that life rune, then the

01:06:19.340 time they were born, and the date of their death book ended with that death rune. So

01:06:25.880 I don't know if that's part of what some of that confusion might be or not.

01:06:28.900 Yeah, the severely wounding is, again, I may talk about how the rune poem speaks of, like, a protective sense, and it's, you know, it states in their sedge or sic,

01:06:43.080 uh haveth off this on fen uh wexit on the water uh wound thought grim like it wounds greatly or

01:06:53.860 grimmed and uh blood brenneth biorna a blood is born but it's it's speaking of the the the

01:07:02.320 grievously wounded and um you know it lives on the fen waters uh it wounds severely and stains

01:07:10.100 with blood any man who grabs it so it wounds greatly and i think that's uh again it's making

01:07:16.740 reference to uh the edge of something the protection aspect of and i think that's very much

01:07:23.300 what the obvious symbolism of that rune being elk the obvious symbol of that being the antlers of

01:07:29.220 the elk um yeah they'll gore you and that will mess you up pretty bad if you know if you get in

01:07:36.020 in a brawl with an elk, and an elk's protecting something. And as mundane as that may be, again,

01:07:42.740 like I said, there's layers to these things. The iconography of that, the imagery of that,

01:07:48.660 teaches you a bigger truth about the mystery of algis. So, you know, it's that fierce protection,

01:07:56.980 much like the elk is protected by its magnificent antlers.

01:08:01.460 um sam asks uh in beginning a relationship with heim dollar how can i build the connection with

01:08:11.900 him specifically um i'm going to go ahead and take first stab at this and i'll hand it over

01:08:18.720 to see if spawn has ideas on it but i want to follow up with what i just said about

01:08:23.280 about overthinking if it's cool to look okay for example um

01:08:30.480 when i was brand new and i didn't know anything else and i was you know i don't know at the time

01:08:38.580 i was like 20 i drank a shot to freya i shared a shot i poured out a shot and i drank a shot

01:08:46.020 goldschlager because freya likes gold and i um i got some cat food and i opened up some fancy feasts

01:08:57.140 the kind with the little shrimps in it before because freya has two cats that pull her chariot

01:09:02.980 and as simple as that is it was me using a little bit of lore that i knew at that time

01:09:09.300 to try to make a gesture there's any level you can take that on it can be simple

01:09:14.740 you can do something you know elaborate because you have a deep understanding of man in this

01:09:19.860 region of sweden heimdall was particularly worshipped therefore you know this is a local

01:09:25.780 incense they have there or a local liquor they brew there or something you can do all of those

01:09:31.300 things and the thought you put in is beautiful i don't mean to minimize those kind of offerings

01:09:36.740 but when you're just starting starting out the important thing is that you're doing it and the

01:09:42.340 important thing on top of that is you're doing it with respect and reverence you ask how to offer

01:09:47.460 to heimdall um specifically as opposed to one of the other gods and i would say reflect that in

01:09:55.860 you know in your speech that you do during it respect that in the verbiage that you use

01:10:02.020 in your prayer when you make an offering speak to the god um and it's not so much about getting

01:10:10.020 something back i think very much we also have this you know this is one of the sacred cows

01:10:15.140 in also true that that i try to like butcher because i don't think it's

01:10:20.580 i think it's very misleading this whole gift demands a gift thing um if you keep score on

01:10:28.180 all your gifts it's very much not in the spirit of nobility that's in the spirit of uh a different

01:10:33.860 group of people and the way that they approach a lot of things um we're not keeping meticulous

01:10:40.260 score on gifts that we give to friends of ours there does become an obligation to give back

01:10:45.300 but it's much more about building relationship our gods have blessed us with so many things

01:10:51.940 heimdall specifically has blessed mankind with so many things we could offer him gifts for the

01:10:59.300 the rest of our life and not make up for the great things that he's already gifted us and paid

01:11:04.100 forward. So when you do it, I would do it with an attitude of here's my offering. I'm here. I would

01:11:11.540 like to be closer to you. I would like to know you better, Lord Heimdall. I'm here and I'm listening.

01:11:19.020 You know, I'm one of yours and I want to build that relationship. Here is my offering and just

01:11:27.800 what happens i think i would highly recommend that and it's literally some of the first steps

01:11:32.280 that i did in house true and i felt very benefited by that what are your thoughts fun yeah i i mean

01:11:39.720 i think you hit hit it sincerity is i think the key to making connection with the gods uh there's

01:11:48.520 a lot of nuanced things that we could talk about when we talk about culture our culture uh uh giving

01:11:57.480 bloat at the Hoffs, giving bloat with certain kindreds. They have certain ways of doing things.

01:12:03.040 These are cultural building blocks to perhaps logistically organize 50 to 300 people,

01:12:13.260 you know, giving thanks to the gods. You know, being at a bloat with, you know, well over 150

01:12:19.680 people, there's actually a logistical purpose to the reason why we do some of the things we do.

01:12:25.580 but the sincerity is the same whether we're doing it by ourselves or with 150 people

01:12:32.540 the sincerity is what makes that connection i think that's why one of like your bloats

01:12:38.160 and and some of the physical things we have seen captured on on uh pictures shows that the the

01:12:46.680 results of sincerity um and i think that's what makes the biggest connection um so if you find

01:12:55.560 whatever if you're doing it by yourself and you find yourself needing or desiring let's say

01:13:01.660 desiring not even needing you desire to paint a picture with words you want to eloquate some

01:13:07.280 maybe perhaps even show some of your knowledge because he is a god of knowledge and you want to

01:13:15.740 um paint that by all means but if you don't if you can't that's okay that that doesn't stop it

01:13:22.540 um you don't need to be at a harrow with with a bowl and and and a bell and a horn or you don't

01:13:31.460 need to be outside at like stacked stones like they say in the adas with with uh some sort of

01:13:37.400 skull on top or perhaps a grid or a circle that's drawn um these things are cultural and and i'm not

01:13:47.020 knocking them by any means what i mean is the context in which they're being used is because

01:13:52.260 of the culture that's built around it and uh that that has significance but it first comes with

01:13:57.780 sincerity and why you're you're wanting to to have heighty for heimdall um or or names titles um

01:14:07.380 like again as he was talking about simply saying lord heimdall again shows reverence and and a

01:14:15.300 sense of understanding in the hierarchy of the world. But, you know, or connecting things to

01:14:22.960 story-wise, I have a horn that is at Thorshof that has two seals fighting each other on the

01:14:29.900 side of the horn, and it is a blowing horn to announce certain things during ceremony.

01:14:35.420 That was a reverent gesture on my part. So, you know, knowing more lore and understanding those

01:14:44.500 things is I think again an act of devotion but it's not like the I've done this so I get this

01:14:54.660 it's it again it you could be someone who knows very little but you come at it sincerely

01:15:01.540 you will gain from that interaction with the gods or you could know a ton of lore

01:15:07.160 but not quite you're just kind of going through it you're you're not going to garner that

01:15:15.280 connection yeah is you know is is the fbi your friend because i guarantee you they know a lot

01:15:22.940 more details about you than your best friend just because they snoop and store information

01:15:29.660 doesn't equal having a relationship and i saw over there in the chat uh cliff making a note about

01:15:36.840 Goldschlager and Fancy Feast. I don't do the Fancy Feast anymore, but I'll tell you,

01:15:41.640 I think Goldschlager is a solid beverage of choice to bloat, to give offering to Freya with.

01:15:47.260 I stand by it. Not only that, but it's delicious. I would imagine that Lady Freya would enjoy it. 0.54

01:15:54.260 I hope that she does, but I think that's a fine beverage choice for that. It's strange.

01:15:58.840 there's there's certain gods that you know we've come to uh you know we've come to an understanding

01:16:07.240 or an or an assumption that they like certain things and you know even because it's not found

01:16:13.320 in the eddas doesn't mean it's not legitimate we've written 54 years of modern house to true

01:16:18.680 lore with the relationships that we've built um you know thor prefers dark beer is one of

01:16:26.600 those things that people kind of have see have felt to be the case or sometimes tear likes uh

01:16:33.960 likes a deep red wine or a merlot is what i've heard again i don't know it sounds kind of silly

01:16:40.040 and i don't mean it's silly but it's it's just kind of a modern thing that we've come up with

01:16:45.720 that we feel are offerings that have been received well or that uh you know things work well with

01:16:51.960 and i think that's really important if you look at it's so much more important to looking at this

01:16:59.800 in terms of a gifting cycle than it is in terms of a formula and there are people out there that have

01:17:06.040 and so as much as i downplay really elaborate played out ceremony when doing these things

01:17:15.640 i don't mean that towards anybody who does that through authenticity i mean that because

01:17:22.520 that's so different than how i approach things it's not how i express myself

01:17:28.680 in the most heartfelt way to some people whose brain works like that that is how they put the

01:17:34.840 most of themselves into it is by coming up with elaborate lore-based you know things and then

01:17:42.200 putting that love into their offering that's beautiful i don't take anything away from that

01:17:47.000 just know that everybody does things different the same is true with a gift that that you would give

01:17:51.880 to a person that you care about really good friend of mine gave me a gift um not too long ago and

01:18:00.200 not you know defaulting to what was in his wheelhouse to what he had to what he put his

01:18:07.880 soul into his gift was to was to sing me a song that was was a cover of of a band that we both

01:18:14.680 like and it was a really apropos song but it was really heartfelt and that made it really touching

01:18:21.000 i think that the heartfelt part is what is essential in any kind of offering

01:18:26.680 and it's especially essential in that first introductory like hey i'm just coming into this

01:18:33.720 i don't know you well i want to introduce myself and i want to start a relationship

01:18:40.760 i think that you know first it's really cool that you want to do that and secondly

01:18:46.200 don't let any hesitation about doing it perfect i'll hold you back there's

01:18:54.440 it would be wrong to say that there's no right and no wrong way to do it there certainly is

01:18:59.160 but the things that make something one of the many right ways to do it is piety. The thing

01:19:06.400 that makes it one of the infinite wrong ways to do it is irreverence. So as long as you use those

01:19:13.060 as guideposts, I think you're in a good spot. Our next question, am I correct to assume that

01:19:22.240 the gods time that to the gods time is irrelevant there is no past present or future it's a state

01:19:30.680 we as mortals can't put into words so no you're not entirely correct on that but you are correct

01:19:43.800 in the last statement that it's a state that mortals can't put into words because i don't

01:19:49.140 think that either Svan or myself could give you the exact understanding that a god would have

01:19:54.760 of human time. In the AFA, we believe very much in something that we call mythic time

01:20:01.600 and mythic space. And in that context, our conception of time runs simultaneous to where

01:20:12.740 the past, the present, and the future, all are going to happen, all are happening, and all have

01:20:21.140 happened simultaneous. In the realm of the gods, how exactly they perceive time could be very,

01:20:27.380 very different. To explain to our ancestors, certainly we see our myth cycle laid out with

01:20:34.960 a chronology in a lot of ways, with a foreboding about Ragnarok or a pre-understanding about

01:20:41.180 something that's to happen in the future or a maturation process of things. So I think that

01:20:48.400 there's certainly some component of time to our gods, but for us to say exactly what that looks

01:20:53.960 like from their perspective, I think is an impossibility. But yeah, the most true thing

01:21:00.020 that you said is it's a state that we as mortals can't truly put into words. So do you have any

01:21:05.200 thoughts on that, Svon? Yeah, I just, when I think when the gods, or when we speak about the gods

01:21:13.160 in relation to time, we are talking about movement. Things move from many different levels.

01:21:21.500 Understanding of our concepts of time can change based off of gravity and mass, and we can go into

01:21:28.340 all kinds of things like that but all of it is about movement and the gods seeing and understanding

01:21:36.500 the movement of the universe themselves within it themselves also kind of outside of the material

01:21:43.380 movement um and and correlating or or being uh intimately connected to it but somewhat outside

01:21:50.980 of it it's it's an acknowledgement of movement because i think that the the goals that the gods

01:21:56.340 have spoken of in the stories about the attainment of understanding the past to seeing into the well

01:22:03.380 these are great symbolic points of understanding levels of movement and that i think is what

01:22:12.020 is the true correlation of time i think that's why we um are our priestly symbol

01:22:18.900 of the Raido rune. The Raido rune is, again, yes, it is about understanding movement. And that

01:22:30.380 movement, being aligned with it, is again a correlation of understanding of time. Time as

01:22:38.860 we see it, and not understanding or proclaiming that we understand the way the gods see time or

01:22:46.060 movement, but that they do see movement. They see movement beyond even what we can see. Ours is very

01:22:54.620 limited. Collectively, it's better that we see it as we move together, but still, again, hard to

01:23:04.140 encapsulate in words all the movement of the universe and the heavenly realm as well. And even

01:23:13.420 the the realm that doesn't move the the unmoving the the the the lower realm the place that is

01:23:20.940 separated from time so i see nate from colorado over in the chat room it has been far too long

01:23:30.220 since i've seen you and spoken to you nate i hope you're doing well um antonio's got a question and

01:23:36.060 i think this brings up something that spawn and i and our gothar spoke about a few weeks back

01:23:41.740 and i think we can elaborate on a little bit more because i saw some questions about it when this

01:23:46.220 came up in the chat room um antonio asks for february since we're close to it what gods or

01:23:53.900 goddesses is the best to celebrate valentines oh the volley the volley so yeah so this is what i

01:24:03.420 saw in the in the chat room. First, somebody made the point that, you know, our major celebration

01:24:11.740 in February is Charming of the Plow. And that's true. But it doesn't mean that we can't celebrate 0.81

01:24:16.940 Valentine's Day. But there's not, Valentine's Day is not an evolution of a of an Ausitru holiday.

01:24:27.660 and somebody mentioned that the afa celebrates uh valentine's day to to valley and i don't

01:24:37.820 though that's cringy it is based on something that's something that the old afa certainly

01:24:44.460 did because it was you know one of those kind of

01:24:50.300 one of those kind of cringy initial steps in figuring things out and i think that they

01:24:56.940 imagined an association there linguistically that that's not the case. But yes, it is a fact that

01:25:04.300 in modern Alstatut, there was a time to where people did celebrate to Vali on Valentine's Day.

01:25:12.560 Now, there's never a wrong time to honor one of our gods. If that's what you want to do,

01:25:18.700 it's not hurting anybody. And I'm sure Vali appreciates the honor and the celebration that

01:25:25.780 gets but just know there is no there is no connection other than they both start with a v

01:25:33.460 and a um and there's no connection there go ahead and the bow well and the and the bow

01:25:43.140 but if anything i think the bow makes it worse because it makes a

01:25:50.340 and this may seem like a strange concept too but i was talking about that this with our gothar

01:25:58.260 i don't want to be irreverent to gods generally i certainly don't want to call

01:26:06.740 in cause any irreverence by insulting greek and or roman demigods

01:26:17.060 by talking about the association with with cupid or anything else that has to do with an air with

01:26:23.460 with a valentine's day archer so i i would like to not even confuse that worse and that is one

01:26:30.340 of the things that does make it a bit more confusing um but yeah so svan if if you could

01:26:37.620 advise you know aside from the fact that we should also celebrate charming the plow in february

01:26:43.780 if there were a particular god or goddess that you think would be the best to celebrate

01:26:50.340 uh on valentine's day syalvin syalvin right away um that it's like i want to get it out as soon as

01:27:00.260 as soon as you started angling in that direction it's like seven uh the holy lady syalvin for us

01:27:07.540 is the maiden of Fensaler, the mistress that covers all matters of love. I think like what

01:27:18.860 you had said, it doesn't mean that we can't celebrate St. Valentine or whatever. I guess

01:27:23.620 I don't know how that's, you know, that doesn't really have a place except in name now. It's

01:27:29.860 culturally a day of love. I think there's a lot of holidays that we have culturally

01:27:35.500 here in the United States that maybe some of our members elsewhere might not, you know,

01:27:40.700 understand or culturally connect to. And I think culturally their holidays that they may have

01:27:48.940 are also important because we don't want to be alien from the culture, our countries, our nations.

01:27:58.160 And if it is good, then it is good.

01:28:01.980 But it's not, you know, worshiping Vaoli specifically on Valentine's Day is, yeah, I guess it is deeply misplaced.

01:28:10.360 the bow, which we will cover when we do cover Vaoli about the true, I think, point of the bow

01:28:21.040 and in relation to some of the things that we'll be talking about in worship to him.

01:28:27.980 But yeah, it causes a lot of confusion. I would say Sjoven is the goddess of love,

01:28:36.740 whether it's familial love, uh, brotherly love, um, uh, you know, uh, emotional and heartfelt

01:28:44.100 love, it can apply to a lot of things. And I think that in relation to Valentine's day,

01:28:48.660 I often do give prayer and blow to Sioven. Um, uh, as far as like, again, charming of the plow 1.00

01:29:00.120 is is a big one there because we are preparing for the the equinox the the convert converting

01:29:07.000 point between that of the the dark tidying of winter to the bright tidying of summer and um

01:29:14.280 so it's important that we do that but yeah that's i mean that that that that thing i think came

01:29:24.120 about because a lot of people were grasping at an attempt to fill markers within the year in order

01:29:32.200 to bring people closer to the gods or have a relationship with the gods and they were they

01:29:36.280 were attempting to do that i think they attempted to do that simply based off of connectivity by

01:29:41.080 sound and it made it easy for people because when alsatru was re-forming itself in modern times

01:29:48.920 it was much akin, again, based on sincerity, but not, you know, we were still working through a lot of details.

01:29:58.680 And so some people do give devotion to Vaoli during that time.

01:30:04.180 But again, the correlation between that and love is kind of misplaced if we talk about Vaoli as his throne,

01:30:13.240 his his dominion is makes makes that a very interesting combination of the two

01:30:20.580 yeah i it's it's really important to look at things in context um

01:30:29.820 there

01:30:34.300 we are never going to have things perfect in the way things perfectly should be done

01:30:45.200 ideally we're going to get ever closer to that level of perfection but there's never going to

01:30:50.620 be a point that we can't refine something or do it better or add something more or do something

01:30:58.080 to improve. And that doesn't cheapen or invalidate all the things that came before.

01:31:05.440 In the process of the development of Alcitru, there have been countless, you know, missteps,

01:31:12.160 most of them minor, but there have been a lot of missteps here and there.

01:31:15.840 There will continue to be missteps. But this is one of, you know, to carry on a theme tonight.

01:31:22.320 If the intention is piety, then perfection is what you shoot towards, but the effort in and of itself is worthwhile, and it's not wrong.

01:31:41.780 No, there's no association between Valley and Valentine's Day.

01:31:45.540 But if that's what you do, and I'll tell you this, if you happen to be one of the rare people who's, you know, second generation Alcitru and your family has done that for the past 30 years, that's fantastic and awesome.

01:31:59.620 And I wouldn't want you to change that for anything in the world.

01:32:01.860 So I, you know, don't have Valley wearing a diaper and like cherubic because that's silly.

01:32:09.780 But if you're doing it out of genuinely, that's when your family honors Valley, then absolutely keep doing that.

01:32:16.200 Go for it. Just, you know, just know why you're doing it.

01:32:21.440 But it's like I said, it's very easy to sit here and be like, oh, that's a cringy thing they did in the 80s.

01:32:26.800 and i guarantee you you know 30 years from now 40 years from now people like this cringy thing matt

01:32:32.400 did back in you know 2023 i'm sure that's going to happen more than once so um we just need to

01:32:39.920 be respectful of our roots and where we came from and hope that our descendants will show us the

01:32:45.120 same grace um next question uh what do you think about the misconception of odin being the one

01:32:56.080 who gave the runes to humanity when it was actually rigor heimdallr so i think there's a case

01:33:04.720 i think that puts it a little bit too black and white and too stark uh swan what are your what

01:33:10.320 are your thoughts on that break that down for folks that may not be familiar with those myths

01:33:15.840 well and and we're specifically talking about uh rigstula uh the story of in which heimdall comes

01:33:24.480 down in three times and in the evolution of the castes or the evolutions of the folk.

01:33:32.480 By the last, he teaches Koenig or King how to recite poetry, how to fight from horseback,

01:33:41.220 how to play in games of strategy, and how to read the runes.

01:33:46.040 And this is always kind of interpreted or seen as that this is a giving of the knowledge of runes to the folk.

01:33:59.660 And of course, there's confusion because it's Odin who gives the knowledge of the runes to the gods.

01:34:07.740 But again, when we're talking about the runes, that placing himself upon the nexus center point of Evan and seeing the constructive sounds and movement that create all and then bringing that knowledge forth and being seen as the rune father.

01:34:31.320 He is rightfully so. Um, if we are to take it in a sense of, uh, again, in the, in the Nordic period, um, you know, if they, what were they with, were they talking about the younger Futhark? Were they talking about writing or conveying message, um, through writing?

01:34:50.740 Um, I think that it's, it's important to remember that in the story, it is conveyed that Grigg teaches Koenig the, the map, the, the power of the runes.

01:35:06.080 It's not quite known whether or not the runes were perhaps known amongst men and that he teaches him correctly.

01:35:12.420 um but again if we're talking about symbolic language again konig is of course the most

01:35:18.800 noble of mindset or the most noble of spiritual soul set and the runic power is understood to him

01:35:26.020 taught to him by heimdall um this again could mean an attainment of or going through the process of

01:35:33.740 evolving to understand them in the the purest form um again knowledge and all knowledge that

01:35:40.720 comes from the gods passes through that prismatic threshold that is Heimdall. So that would fit

01:35:48.780 very well. But I do often like to point that out to people as well, that when they say,

01:35:57.240 Odin gave the runes to mankind, it's Heimdall. But there's a reason I think that threshold is

01:36:07.640 important, but I don't think it's meant to be taken, uh, absolute in, in literation of,

01:36:13.740 of the story. I think that there could be a lot of deeper meaning and understanding and,

01:36:18.820 and what that might, you know, pertain to as far as understanding them correctly

01:36:26.280 and things of that nature. Um, again, though, it's, it's, I, I think too,

01:36:33.300 there's a lot of Hellenicism in the Adas that this kind of does make Heimdall very connected

01:36:39.560 to humanity. And so a lot of people that I have talked to have often, you know, immediately kind

01:36:45.160 of associated an essence of Promethean knowledge given to humanity. And the folk are called

01:36:54.420 Heimdall's children or, you know, the people of Heimdall. And so I do consider Heimdall to be

01:37:02.740 the lord of the folk, the lord of our people, and I think in his name alone it does kind of allude

01:37:10.780 to the centering or the sourcing of us as a people, and in so I think there is transference

01:37:17.960 of knowledge from that time that Heimdall did pass on. In a way I kind of believe that's where

01:37:26.060 the stories originated from as well, is that these stories that have evolved with us over time

01:37:32.020 came from the gods to man, and man has taken it and have, you know, broken it down into meter,

01:37:40.880 have brought it into song, and have conveyed it into stories to children.

01:37:45.640 So there's a lot of knowledge there that was, I think, passed down.

01:37:48.700 And again, he is a threshold as much to heaven as he is to earth

01:37:53.800 in regards to much of the great wisdom and divinity of the gods.

01:38:02.020 Yeah, I think that's true. I think that's one of those lore fine points that, you know, folks who think that Odin gifted mankind with the runes, they're not wrong.

01:38:19.740 Odin discovered the runes, learned the runes, took runic knowledge, and then applied it in ways for men to use.

01:38:29.960 He won for conscious creation, the runes.

01:38:35.420 And yes, the lore says the Heimdall instructed King on how to use them.

01:38:43.320 but um i just i i just think that it's it's not entirely correct to cut odin out of that

01:38:50.040 that runic equation um because i think that's a big part of how our people got the runes was odin's

01:38:57.800 learning them and getting them from from the gap getting them from the void collecting them

01:39:03.240 when he hung on the tree and bringing that knowledge to conscious creation um

01:39:12.600 Does the AFA celebrate Yule during the full moon of Rukmanudr after the winter solstice as it is traditional from the old days?

01:39:25.740 No, not at all. The AFA celebrates Yule from the night of the 20th through to New Year's Eve.

01:39:34.220 um that's when it's yule time that's when colloquially our people have celebrated

01:39:42.820 the midwinter end of winter holiday celebration since you know long remembering and that's when

01:39:53.700 it makes sense to do that we celebrate yule certainly the the solstice occurs during yule

01:40:00.380 but no, we don't try to do, you know, moon calculations and celebrate it, you know,

01:40:07.240 into January or whatnot. It's a very convenient and useful time for us to celebrate 12 days of

01:40:13.440 celebration to start, you know, to start the night before the solstice and take it all the way to

01:40:18.800 culminate at Mother's Night or at 12th night on New Year's Eve. And I think that there's some

01:40:27.260 people that have been mentioning that like i i got into not not a a debate or anything it was just a

01:40:32.780 commenting about that um most of those people that are speaking of that time i i if you're following

01:40:39.280 the anglo-saxon timekeeping uh yes you're uh yolmanov and uh these things were extended and

01:40:49.980 don't align up with the gregorian calendar i a lot of people know that i'm a i'm a big calendar

01:40:55.260 fan about timekeeping just in general um but that's again the anglo-saxons used that that's

01:41:04.760 not saying that the germans used that and we we know this by the different namings of the months

01:41:10.580 uh or the nords and how they kept time and so you know again i always say well that depends

01:41:18.780 really on what calendar you're using and uh you know for us uh yule and starting around the knowing

01:41:27.180 about the winter solstice is important i mean our ancestors saw the new year as in winter nights

01:41:33.340 they saw that but that's because they also considered the new day to start at sunset

01:41:39.020 but now we know by you know greater knowledge our understanding of when the day starts we have now

01:41:46.300 aligned the day to start at midnight in the middle of the night because we calculate time

01:41:50.940 differently. And so, you know, in much the same way, our changing of understanding about the year

01:41:57.740 has changed. So instead of seeing the new year necessarily at winter nights, like our ancestors

01:42:02.680 did, we see it, you know, at the midwinter as, as a, uh, the darkest point. And then the unfolding

01:42:09.400 of the new, the new time coming out with the sun that has a lot of power in and of itself

01:42:15.180 culturally for us now. So I think that sometimes people will say, oh, well, you're not doing it

01:42:21.280 right because, you know, it was three days on the Yule moon, the full moon around this time.

01:42:27.540 And you notice with like the Anglo-Saxon calendar, it does drift a great amount. And then it has to

01:42:33.020 be realigned with an intercalendary month. But again, that's not everybody using the Anglo-Saxon

01:42:41.080 timekeeping. You know, and this goes back to the, it's about relationships and it's not a math

01:42:47.160 formula. Let's say, I don't know, let's say Alzheimer's Goethe number three decides we're

01:42:58.580 going to celebrate the entire month of December as Yule. We're going to have 31 days of Yule

01:43:03.140 because that's what we're doing. Doesn't make it wrong. It makes it a lot. It might make it

01:43:08.440 excessive but it doesn't make it wrong i think it's very easy to you know push up your glasses

01:43:15.880 and say well actually when it misses the point there's no there's no pretense the afa makes no

01:43:22.760 claims that are that ancient vikings used to celebrate yule for 12 days starting at the 20th

01:43:28.360 my claim is is that the austral folk assembly since 1995 has done that and so that's what we

01:43:33.800 continue to do because that's our tradition we've developed and it's worked really well

01:43:38.760 for us in the cultural context that we're in um go ahead another part another part to that question

01:43:46.520 um uh do you do you consider sacrificial blood as the coin of the gods all right i thought that was

01:43:52.600 a completely separate question but i was about to read that so go ahead and give us your thoughts

01:43:56.920 on that's fun yeah does the afa celebrate your uh during the full moon of fruit manada after

01:44:03.960 the winter solstice as it is traditionally from the olden days do you consider the sacrificial

01:44:08.200 blood as the coin of the gods um i think it's worth noting what that coinage represents to

01:44:15.800 our ancestors i mean uh you know like if we're talking about like gorman other and the the month

01:44:23.160 of of culling the herds and giving thanks um by gifting with exchange of the bounty uh and the

01:44:32.760 loss of that gift um that that is to be shared with the gods is also again creating a a deficit

01:44:42.040 for the folk but in order to ensure that the cycle is continued and that to give reverence to the

01:44:48.040 bounty but that can apply to many things and we see that with our ancestors a lot whether it's with

01:44:54.920 um you know uh again we talk about um bog sacrifices as far as like weaponry and uh perhaps

01:45:04.400 even the you know um the war prisoners of the migration or early germanic periods and things

01:45:12.500 like that again it is about the context of the gift and it's uh it's purposing i think that the

01:45:21.860 again the intent and the um sincerity of that intent and also to the the the loss and what

01:45:31.600 that represents in that gift um the the price it takes to i often talk to people at the hoff when

01:45:38.680 many of them come from for hours and hours away. And I tell them, you know, you have started your

01:45:48.480 gift giving the moment you left your home. You have traveled miles and miles and miles and placed

01:45:56.160 much time to come out and stand with your folk before the gods. Your gifting has started the

01:46:02.740 moment you stepped out that door, um, and taken the adventure and the deed to come and, and give

01:46:11.840 faith to the gods. And I don't think that blood or the blow, the blothing, uh, is somehow more 0.57

01:46:19.860 paramount. Like, ah, you know, these people are giving mead and I'm giving, you know, blood. So

01:46:25.860 well, my gifts are better. Again, it comes to about sincerity and the nature in which you are

01:46:32.660 giving and what you are giving and why you are giving. And I think that's one of those evolutionary

01:46:37.520 steps that has happened in Ausatru simply because of the nature of our society. Very few of us are

01:46:45.520 strictly agrarian anymore. I have met some Ausatru who have homesteads and they do give

01:46:51.700 a gift in blood,

01:46:54.280 but they're also doing it around the time that they're going to call the

01:46:58.040 animals for the winter or to remove the older so that the younger can attain

01:47:03.260 the food and,

01:47:04.080 and have and,

01:47:05.720 you know,

01:47:06.120 to breed and give new children for the next year,

01:47:09.720 you know,

01:47:11.400 create,

01:47:12.220 you know,

01:47:13.180 new swine and sheep babies.

01:47:17.360 And we've had a big discussion on that.

01:47:19.580 i find it beautiful and fascinating but i don't think it's the end-all be-all coin um of the gods

01:47:30.860 um

01:47:35.020 so it's it's interesting it's a it's a complex question that goes more than just yes or no

01:47:41.980 the blood of sacrifice

01:47:43.500 does different things on different levels there's layers to it

01:47:51.180 as a means of transmission of message from us to the gods that can come in a lot of forms and

01:48:01.040 I think it's very effectively done with mead as you know putting our energy into that liquid

01:48:07.840 of transmitting that liquid by pouring out into the fire or wherever to the gods and it accomplishes

01:48:14.320 what we're trying to do but i'm not going to lie i think there is something special and particularly

01:48:19.760 potent about imbuing that message into something that is alive and then at that moment that

01:48:30.080 that thing literally transmuting from the living into the dead and carrying that message beyond

01:48:36.480 the veil i think there's something very special about that but that being said i don't think it's

01:48:44.880 it's the transmission of something from this side of the veil to the other that goes on more than 0.95

01:48:50.960 it's you know how much life can we take i think that you know when you have some elaborate hindu

01:48:59.440 ceremonies where you know they might slaughter an entire herd of something i don't think that 0.99

01:49:06.000 necessarily accomplishes anything better than a single animal sacrifice and if you look at

01:49:12.400 sacrifice like spawn said our sacrifice has always been very different than perhaps in some other

01:49:18.080 cultures where they they burn the entire object and and it's completely um given over to the

01:49:24.800 sacrifice uh you know you may sacrifice choice pieces or or blood but the sacrificial slaughter

01:49:33.440 was also a preparation for a sacred feast to be shared in by the folk. And so there's more to it

01:49:40.560 than just, you know, finding reason to kill animals or victims. I think when you see some of

01:49:47.480 the deodentic sacrifices in a battlefield context with high status prisoners, it wasn't about like

01:49:56.740 how much blood can we shed? But often it was very specific to a leader of something, to a war leader,

01:50:05.360 to a sacrifice that was particularly symbolic. But it was also done in a way that those people

01:50:11.900 were likely to be executed in a more profane way if they weren't sacrificed that way. But giving

01:50:18.140 that offering a special place, sacrificing, literally making it sacred is, there's more

01:50:26.640 to it than just, than just blood. But certainly I think that it's, yeah, in a way it is the

01:50:37.000 coinage in the sense that it is the means by which value is transmitted from one point

01:50:45.500 to another. But like I said, I think there's so much more to it than than such a simple

01:50:49.940 phraseology. Matt and Svahn, what is your favorite book written by an AFA member? Svahn,

01:51:01.260 John, what's your favorite book written by an AFA member?

01:51:05.100 Hmm.

01:51:07.440 I mean, I have, what is it, The Soldier's Habamo?

01:51:20.520 I think that's an, hmm.

01:51:27.500 I don't know.

01:51:28.260 I, I, as far as favorites go, I mean, again, I, to default,

01:51:34.440 Father MacNallan's, um, uh,

01:51:39.440 also true, a native European spirituality I've utilized quite often in reference

01:51:45.640 to new members. So I think in value,

01:51:49.720 that's the highest one because if I meet folks who are interested in also true,

01:51:55.100 if i and i don't proselytize i just simply speak of like what i'm doing and then that that goes

01:52:02.080 into well what is you what is this so you believe in many gods and then it's oftentimes it's just

01:52:08.160 the easiest way for me to lay that out and say here read this and it gives you a very basic

01:52:14.600 understanding of where i'm coming from spiritually and that usually starts um

01:52:21.860 a uh you know a a conversation that that i think has highest value is in because i've

01:52:30.340 i've used it so often to start a relationship with someone to help them build a relationship

01:52:37.300 towards the gods and to better understand why i am doing what i am doing and why i have

01:52:45.060 um a desire to bring myself into alignment with the gods and i think there's a lot of philosophical

01:52:51.060 points in that book that help really diffuse a lot of the the clinging tissue of Abrahamic faith

01:53:02.220 without it being necessarily um it's not about destroying another faith or saying

01:53:10.880 you know I I hate this faith so I'm gonna do this instead it's like no there are people that

01:53:18.720 have great value in this ideology, but I find more value in this ideology, and this ideology

01:53:24.680 is more important to me, that being of good deed, a being of clean word, not abiding by

01:53:31.340 things, being loyal, building relationships with the gods, building relationships with

01:53:37.660 the community, all of these things are continuously laid out in that book.

01:53:43.000 So I would say it's my favorite because I've utilized it as a threshold so many times.

01:53:51.420 i think my favorite and this is this is an obvious one is uh astro native european spirituality by

01:54:02.300 steve and that's for a couple of reasons um i got to i got to proofread that before it was published

01:54:12.540 which always makes it kind of cool and special to me that i was one of the the early people that got

01:54:17.260 to see it um i also just think that a lot goes into making a book that sometimes people don't

01:54:24.620 realize and in the era where a lot of things are self-published it's very easy just to roll stuff

01:54:32.460 out that's not as refined as it should be or as it could be i know that steve took a lot of time

01:54:40.300 writing that book and polishing it up and making it um making it look the way that it does

01:54:48.620 and a lot of effort went into it and in sharing it and it's become a really important book to uh

01:54:58.300 to introduce new people to alsatru and give them kind of an idea of

01:55:02.860 what the afa came is and where we came from and i think that's a that's a really useful

01:55:09.100 and interesting book and like i said i have kind of a personal connection to how the book

01:55:12.860 came about so that's probably my favorite um cascadia patriot come on now what song and what

01:55:19.500 band uh the song your friend sang to you um wishing well by black sabbath but the important

01:55:25.900 part is written by ronnie james deo who me and my friend both really admire and thinks an amazing

01:55:31.740 songwriter um sarah asks should we and how can we take back the rainbow what are your thoughts

01:55:45.900 on this one again another one that i was kind of like uh i was i was waiting for you know in a way

01:55:54.620 um we have it already it's our birthright but we don't have to um take anything back

01:56:04.760 it is it uh when something is made in in mockery of or in an attempt to uh facilitate the same

01:56:13.940 beauty um i mean there there there's imitation of it or there's an attempt uh crude hands to sculpt

01:56:22.760 uh you know divine light in other ways and with other purposes and i i i just think that

01:56:32.340 in reality we we have it already um you know when we talk about bivrost bivrost is the glimmering

01:56:40.580 path um and there is some etymology etymological connections to the possibility of heimdall

01:56:47.520 um uh a dollar like as a bow or an arc and heimer being the world so he he being the the world bow

01:56:58.720 that that is um you know the the reclamation of of anything in that regards is is is starting off

01:57:10.480 with that it was lost to begin with the to reclaim something that was lost it's never been lost

01:57:15.800 We have every right to it. It is ours. And so other people will use that symbology for other means and other reasons. But for us, that is the connection, the divine connection.

01:57:31.380 And it is shown in its spectrum to have, you know, that meaning, that bright fire.

01:57:39.180 But it is, in a way, we are, you know, I guess, reconstructing the meaning to make people aware that we still attain it.

01:57:51.580 That is important.

01:57:53.300 And I think that's what you're talking about is how can we build the awareness that we attain it.

01:57:58.820 And I think that is in, again, the construction of our Hoffs, in the devotion of our faith and in our piety to the gods and our deeds in which we honor them.

01:58:12.260 And, of course, you know, Heimdall, we are of Heimdall and Heimdall is of us.

01:58:18.800 So we don't have to reclaim something that is already ours, holy.

01:58:28.820 all right so

01:58:31.060 swan says that the rainbow's still ours but i if it wouldn't come back on the integrity of the

01:58:41.180 afa i would challenge swan to go around wearing rainbow clothes

01:58:44.320 very quickly see why that's a poor idea and i think that that illustrates the conundrum that

01:58:51.480 we're in. A couple of thoughts on that, and I don't, they're tangentially connected. First,

01:59:02.240 symbolism is about communication. Right now, if I had a rainbow flag and started wearing rainbow

01:59:12.680 stuff, I would be communicating to people that I'm a homosexual, and that's not something that

01:59:19.240 is the case nor that i would want to communicate to anyone so how we incorporate the rainbow and

01:59:25.080 things that we do has become important and we notice this um my wife and i now that we have

01:59:30.760 have aubrey is you know just her clothes as a little girl do we get her rainbow stuff because

01:59:36.840 little girls wear rainbow stuff or do we worry that if she does that then people will assume 0.99

01:59:42.920 we're virtue signaling through her about you know some degeneracy agenda um and unfortunately

01:59:50.920 that's kind of where some of that's at one of the reasons and this is a very conscious effort on my

01:59:56.680 part with our hoffs is to really embrace and celebrate bright colors um for far too long

02:00:06.920 I think that people involved in Asatru, people involved in other movements that we might be involved in, people who are share space with us ideologically have embraced this like dark, you know, shoulder pelts and everything's got to be black.

02:00:32.020 And I wanted to move away from that. Our ancestors always celebrated bright colors and things that were shining and bright. It wasn't about trying to be dark and spooky all the time. 0.92

02:00:45.920 So, though I think there's a time and a place and, you know, black is a cool color for certain things, it was really important to me that with our Hoffs, especially with these first 12, that we utilize bright colors.

02:01:02.740 and in that way literally and I've always seen this as a literal way of working out the myth

02:01:09.760 structure that we're literally rebuilding a rainbow bridge connecting us to our gods through

02:01:15.960 our very brightly colored um hoffs through the reestablishment of these temples is is reconnecting

02:01:23.480 or certainly strengthening a uh a very worn connection between ourselves and our gods through

02:01:30.860 these Hoffs. So in that way has been kind of a thing that I've tried to do. And also, I think

02:01:36.760 that factors in with why I'm wearing a ridiculously bright red shirt today and why I try to be a

02:01:42.000 little bit colorful in some of the clothes I wear for bloat things because I want to celebrate and

02:01:47.140 I want to embrace, you know, those kind of bright colors and that attitude of celebration and not

02:01:53.080 just, you know, being grim all the time. I don't think it's quite as full-throated of a take back

02:02:00.040 the rainbow initiative is as perhaps the question was implying one might be but it's a subtle way

02:02:06.360 that i've wanted us to reclaim the rainbow in an important way culturally and between us and our

02:02:13.080 gods um sarah also asks and i'll let you like do the do the biology and science on this spawn

02:02:22.200 mechanically how is one born of nine mothers

02:02:25.960 well again um when we see in the stories um the the the the creation the connection and the

02:02:39.580 culmination of the gods um they are often and always in a deeply uh meta-narrative sense where

02:02:49.240 there's kind of a story going on that means and alludes to many great things one of the things

02:02:55.720 that I've often thought about is the name Heimdall.

02:03:00.660 There's multiple meanings.

02:03:02.040 And again, this is me bringing up the point

02:03:03.940 that the understanding of the way that gods knew

02:03:07.460 that we would evolve to see things.

02:03:09.420 There's a lot in the etymology of the name Heimdall.

02:03:13.320 I had mentioned earlier about Heimer, the world,

02:03:17.080 and Dallur perhaps having relation to the bow.

02:03:20.300 There is another heavenly god that we also honor, Dallinger, and that means, of course, to light, and the doll or doller at the end of Heimdall could allude to a shining light, so it would be the light of the world or the world light.

02:03:37.600 um and also uh heimer or heima uh to be the home the home and dollar possibly meaning the dale

02:03:48.320 and so if if i was to say like the name there could allude to the possibility of an origin point

02:03:58.700 a home dale, one of the thoughts that I had was, what if there was a way or a secret entwining

02:04:10.860 in the poems and in the stories about a place, a home dale, an origin point, a point in which we

02:04:19.140 did have connection to Heimdall, and that place was a coalescence of rivers. I thought about it

02:04:27.060 in a very physical sense. And there has some names like in Iarnsaxa, which again has placement

02:04:39.960 with Thor, is mentioned to be one of the mothers of Heimdall. And the connection to that possibly

02:04:46.980 being the name of a river is one thing. But again, when we talk about time and mythic time

02:04:55.800 and how things are layered on top of each other.

02:04:58.580 Could there be physical? Yes.

02:05:00.320 Could there be metaphysical? Yes.

02:05:02.180 Could there be cosmic? Yes.

02:05:06.020 I've heard many people propose the idea

02:05:08.420 that the waves represent layerings,

02:05:12.940 whether they are in the well

02:05:14.660 or whether they are quite literal,

02:05:17.960 a layering of the earth, a layering of waters.

02:05:21.360 And from those layerings of water,

02:05:23.300 there is produced this being of the middle that is Heimdall. There's a lot, and I think that

02:05:33.640 there's a, theosophically, it's really interesting to wonder about, but again, the fragmentation of

02:05:42.020 the stories is scant. And so we look at the nine mothers, again, the nine sources, the nine

02:05:53.360 waves. I know that some people, we see that a lot in the Nordic stories. There's even the nine

02:06:00.880 waves of Eir, the primordial etin or jotin of the ocean, the most primordial state of this

02:06:10.100 physical world um is being the ocean and so some people have tried to connect that heimdall is born

02:06:15.320 of those same i i think that uh it would lend to better understanding that there is a nine

02:06:22.700 substantive waves that create the the divine being and that has a much deeper meaning than

02:06:32.960 direct physical waves or direct physical rivers i mean i think that perhaps again it could be

02:06:39.840 secretive and and alluding towards things but the gods are not uh you know it's it's not about how

02:06:47.160 much um you know mass gainer uh thor has to drink in order to you know lift mjolnir uh and i and i

02:06:56.140 wish that was a joke but some people have actually like talked about that on the internet like tried

02:07:01.940 to conceptualize it i know that you also really was have been witness to some of that kind of talk

02:07:08.020 And I think that understanding the possibility that the gods are born of multiple layerings of cosmic forces or primordial forces or forces connected.

02:07:22.680 Again, I believe that Heimdall comes from the middle and is ascendant up and placed as a threshold to heaven.

02:07:29.640 And he's always connected to the source in which he was made here.

02:07:32.460 And anybody that knows about the Wainic gods or the Vanic gods would understand what I'm talking about. That being born as a bright flame from the waves of water has a deep, significant meaning amongst our people, but I'm still speculating on exactly the mythic meaning behind that.

02:08:02.460 That's something that Svonne and I have talked about a little bit, and we're still very much discussing and thinking on, but the relation between the nine waves and myths involving Poseidon, and perhaps a connection between Njordr and Heimdall in a way on those waves.

02:08:25.520 And I think that's an interesting thing. But mechanically, certainly Heimdall did not occupy nine different wombs in a biological sense. That doesn't make sense.

02:08:39.340 But when you talk of something being being born of something, you know, linguistically, it's completely appropriate to talk about the circumstances causing something for them to be born of it.

02:08:52.380 If you have a, you know, a hatred of someone born of jealousy, it's a turn of the phrase that that means that brought it into being.

02:09:01.240 And certainly these nine waves of things brought Heimdall into being or created Heimdall in

02:09:09.020 the way that we've come to know him and shaped him.

02:09:12.420 Exactly the deeper points of those things, again, it's something we're kind of discussing

02:09:17.680 and hopefully we come to a better understanding of the more we worship him.

02:09:21.560 Hopefully when we get a hoff to him, the way things are going relatively soon, we can

02:09:29.660 develop that relationship deeper and come to a better understanding of that in the meantime

02:09:35.420 lawrence forbes our uh loyal canadian to the show gave us 10 and said a great stream y'all

02:09:41.420 that's it just wanted to say y'all

02:09:46.780 well i we appreciate that lawrence and as always we appreciate you

02:09:50.940 tuning into the show and being part of things we're all southerners to the canadians there you go

02:09:56.380 i don't know you're an icelander i think that's further north

02:10:05.820 so obsidian skull asks from the perspective of aussitore do you think that uh manichaeism

02:10:16.860 is not a natural position within heathenry and do you think it could be a position inserted by

02:10:23.980 upbringing residues of a Christian society. What are your thoughts on that Svan?

02:10:35.340 Manichaeism, I'm actually a little lost on that.

02:10:43.580 So I can't claim that I'm an expert on it. But my understanding is it has a relation to

02:10:51.420 zoroastrianism in it's a it's an extreme philosophical duality between light and dark

02:11:00.460 and good and evil um and if it does in fact have the relationship to zoroastrianism it would be

02:11:08.220 also a duality between truth and and the lie uh i think that is a natural position first i i reject

02:11:16.300 the term heathenry um we practice also true and in also true i do think it's a natural position i

02:11:22.780 think that the difference is um excuse the excuse the pun or the yeah pun intended i guess um it's

02:11:34.060 not quite that black and white um the duality is certainly there and our duality is between order

02:11:40.780 in chaos. But I don't think it's quite as crystallized as it is in that other point of

02:11:48.220 philosophy. And also, Manichaeism does not seem to me to be a particularly theological

02:11:59.680 faith. I know it's described as a religion, but it seems to me much more like a philosophy or

02:12:05.480 a worldview as opposed to, you know, a religion with, with worship and with deities. But I do

02:12:13.040 think that, you know, if it is in fact based on a Zoroastrian route, that is ultimately based

02:12:23.000 in, in Aryan religiosity in the same way that Ausatru is, is a descendant Aryan faith.

02:12:30.340 And I think the point of light versus dark, good versus evil, order versus chaos, movement versus stagnation, all of those things, there's absolutely duality.

02:12:45.440 Within Ausitru, I think the misunderstanding is there's more than just simple duality.

02:12:50.780 There's duality, but the play of our polytheistic metaphysics is much broader than just a simple, you know,

02:13:04.360 a Hura Mazda, Ahriman, one good, one bad thing.

02:13:09.940 I think ours speaks much more to the human condition to where there is good and there is bad.

02:13:14.320 And then there is all kinds of shades in between and circumstance that that's played out on.

02:13:21.400 But that's my thought on it.

02:13:23.920 I think that it's, again, when we're, you know, when we're talking about it, I immediately went into like a manic.

02:13:31.720 I saw manic and was like, when we talk about, I think, the polarity of good and evil, order and chaos, up and below.

02:13:42.380 So one thing that I think stands out for us is about central to outer or inner to outer.

02:13:49.360 I think that has a huge cultural significance with us.

02:13:54.140 But as far as perhaps damnation and salvation, it does not have the same value.

02:14:04.920 And I think Western society has become heavily built on it and influenced by it.

02:14:12.380 And socially, we reflect a lot of that through our Westernism of the idea of what is, you know, good and what is bad or what is damning and what is salvageable of the soul through deeds and things of that nature.

02:14:29.120 So I think that that does have a off effect, perhaps maybe in a Western sense.

02:14:35.840 But religiously, I see it more as the inner outer is the strongest, I guess, representation of it.

02:14:48.700 All right. So Cliff asks,

02:14:52.440 So some common deities to worship at Charming of the Plow are Frey and Gephyun.

02:14:59.120 But are there other gods or goddesses that could be could also be appropriate and why I want to start out with the first caveat being, yes, it's always good to worship our gods and goddesses.

02:15:14.020 I don't think you're going to do it wrong if you pick one of our gods and goddesses and you choose to give them worship at any particular time that you would like at any day of the year.

02:15:23.940 That said, specific appropriateness, I have always been about honoring Freya charming of the plow. I understand the Geffian reference, and I don't think that's incorrect or bad.

02:15:41.880 and it certainly involves a plowing but i think that the connotations of the plow are much much

02:15:51.480 more phallic i think it is quite literally charming the male instrument of literal penetration

02:16:01.320 to implant seeds in the womb of the earth to break through you know ground that is unyielding

02:16:09.160 and to work our will and to plant things that will come to fruition or come to birth into the future

02:16:17.000 so i think it is so much about the penetrating aspect of phallic forces that i think fray is

02:16:26.840 is the appropriate deity to worship a charming of the plow what are your thoughts swan well

02:16:32.840 So, again, yeah, when we talk about the placing of the seed and the idea of like its correlation to ingwaz or, you know, the ingrune and the preparation of that, we also see, again, the alignment of preparation for spring.

02:16:50.040 uh that's why charming of the plow is being done and it comes from the akrabot the um the

02:16:57.360 referencing to the english preparing of the acreage for uh plowing once the you know the

02:17:04.960 time is right and there's no longer a threat of frost so you can now place the seeds and begin

02:17:11.200 the process of bringing forth the fruits of the earth. And so, Frey, clear in reference to that

02:17:23.000 preparation. Gevion, I think, has been, that's been laid upon. I've always taken Gevion in

02:17:33.480 reference to how western culture especially the nordic and germanic folk have oftentimes placed

02:17:42.520 nationhood in the form of the feminine and i think that's gevion manifesting when we say uh when you

02:17:49.720 see the old you know uh poster saying are you willing to defend her and it's a it's perhaps

02:17:56.200 like a symbol of like columbina or columbia and um you know it it gavion is the the nationhood or

02:18:06.440 the the bordering and that which of the land of your nation that gives the fruits to you um so i

02:18:14.520 think there is relation there but you know in acker bought they specifically mentioned ersa

02:18:21.720 Ersa, of course, is that time in the English language referencing to Ertha or to the earth.

02:18:29.740 And so, Jorv in the Nordic, or Nertha, Nerthus in the Germanic, the earth, the giving earth, whether it's specifically seen in the matril sense of the goddess of the earth, or even, you know, again, this is playing out in the story between Frey and Gerv.

02:18:57.740 Gaird, and we see that again. So Gaird, Gavion, I could see. Frey, absolutely. But again, it's what you're doing. Some could even argue maybe even Sif. Sif is in connection to, you know, a lot of people have made connections to her as the wheat field, but she's also oftentimes referred to as the goddess of the Sib family.

02:19:25.720 and the lot, the land in which the family owns.

02:19:31.000 And so there could be placement in there about property,

02:19:36.040 about ownership and taking of the land and stewardship of the land.

02:19:42.320 I mean, it's certainly an earth-based understanding of the giving of the earth,

02:19:48.980 but it is also, again, indicative of the action of charming that plow,

02:19:54.360 honing its blade and preparing it to make way for the seed. And that, you know, that

02:20:03.280 chemistry between those two items has clear messaging. So, you know, Thor, Sif, I've oftentimes

02:20:12.740 made, you know, prayer to them as well as Gevion, to Frey, to Gerd, and all of that. And of course,

02:20:21.880 nervous and the giving earth all right um next we have uh hi matt would you be interested in

02:20:31.320 having a discussion slash debate with the christian identity movement i am i'm always

02:20:40.200 interested in having a discussion with anybody who you know wants to have a respectful discussion

02:20:46.200 with me i'm assuming it'd be about house to true and i'm happy to discuss that with any well-meaning

02:20:51.320 person i don't have any desire to have a debate with them um i don't think that uh the rightness

02:20:59.960 or wrongness of my faith or their faith is based upon the winning of a intellectual argument or

02:21:07.480 not i think something's you know it's either true or it's not and no matter what's said and done in

02:21:14.120 a debate between me and a ci guy it's not going to make our faith any less true or their faith

02:21:23.960 any more true um but i'd be happy to have a discussion with any of those folks that would

02:21:29.160 like to have a you know that would like to have a discussion with me um absolutely i'm always open

02:21:35.160 that's the thing i'm always open to have a discussion and i'm always open to ask

02:21:38.840 to answer questions as long as somebody is approaching that respectfully that's always

02:21:43.560 been my policy, and I think that's a good place to be. Another question regarding Ehwa's horse,

02:21:53.080 could this rune mean the Heros Gemos of Tiwaz, the deity from the heavens, and Bricano, the tree

02:22:04.040 birch goddess who gave birth to Manas, aka the first generation of the folk?

02:22:10.680 what are your thoughts on that okay so yeah and and i was wondering too that um the reference to

02:22:20.120 manas and uh some people have made connection between heimdall and manas uh him being the lord

02:22:27.600 of the folk and it being mentioned as the the being descendant of manas that tacitus speaks of

02:22:36.680 Um, as far as the correlations between the two, I mean, when we look at where those deeper references most likely come from is the guttens. And they're, again, this is coming from Uphalos and his, you know, understanding of these letters being brought in to be utilized to write the book of Matthew.

02:23:03.620 um in uh you know in gothic or in guttanish um so again the direct and absolute correspondent

02:23:16.500 uh connection between those is i mean to my knowledge i i have not seen anything to where

02:23:23.620 there's a an absolute and tangible connection between them now when we talk about arian myth

02:23:28.900 And overall, I mean, yes, the connection of the horse is clearly, you know, it's highly stated, especially from the heavenly aspect, the idea of the horse being the vehicle of the sky, being the vehicle of movement between all things heavenly.

02:23:48.000 So, yes, but again, the oldest connection we have to that is the Anglo-Saxons, and we know the Anglo-Saxons' connection with that rune and the horse and their pride and deep connection to the teamwork between the rider and the horse itself as a steed.

02:24:10.040 I mean, the production of, I guess, evidence between those two directly, we are, again, surmising, we're thinking about it, we're trying to shape it in our heads, those connections.

02:24:33.500 um but again like the birch goddess when we talk when you when you bring up the uh of the birch

02:24:41.660 goddess we have references of course to to the birch goddess in variant forms and later dates

02:24:47.020 and even in medieval europe but direct connection of it being written down somewhere as there is

02:24:53.740 a singular birch goddess connected directly to the birch tree

02:24:59.320 you know that are we are we talking about again like allusions towards um i mean i've even heard

02:25:07.780 people saying like the birth of fly a garrick and it coming from the birch tree having connections

02:25:14.140 to our understanding of the gods and you know the birth of us as a people but these are i mean

02:25:22.300 things to think about but direct and tangible correlation i don't know i i would i would like

02:25:31.260 to look into that more before saying yes yes absolutely those two correlate so you know i

02:25:38.820 want to i want to throw this out there as a as a point of context rune means mystery

02:25:46.440 and their runes are indeed mysterious and i think that pondering over them we certainly come to

02:25:55.280 truths but i think we could and many have spent entire lifetimes trying to thresh out

02:26:01.940 the ultimate all of the truth of the runes and all of the ways that they're relevant and you

02:26:08.460 know i don't think any human has fully grasped all of the runes though many have gotten much

02:26:14.560 closer than myself. I have to assume by the way the question is presented that you're one of the

02:26:26.580 folks that believes in the correlation between the runes being close to one another as if they're

02:26:33.760 sequential to tell a story. And I have never spent much time considering them in that context.

02:26:44.560 I think that that might be the case.

02:26:47.520 We see them in different orders at different times in some ways,

02:26:53.560 especially with the beginning and ending runes.

02:26:58.700 I've always evaluated the runes individually

02:27:01.500 instead of their correlation to the rune next to them.

02:27:05.180 And that doesn't mean that doing it differently is wrong.

02:27:08.120 But in that context, I don't see the need to explain the horse rune in context of a god and a goddess and then possibly mankind, possibly an allusion to another god.

02:27:30.660 I don't see the need to find that horse to symbolize something else, especially because the horse was always such an essential thing to our people.

02:27:45.240 Um, our, our people were the ones to domesticate the horse and, you know, the ancient Arians, that was one of our big, uh, our big achievements was that utilization of the horse for, for riding and for, you know, mounting warriors atop and for traveling.

02:28:02.740 um horse and horsemanship has been one of the most enduring forces in uh i don't know in aryan

02:28:15.620 culture since the beginning as as far as as i can see the evolution to knighthood being a man upon a

02:28:23.700 horse the warrior nobility mounted upon a steed that image it still resonates with in the deepest

02:28:30.420 parts of our folk soul um evolving into into you know cavalry and just the the elegant writing of

02:28:43.220 noble people and cultured people being able to ride a horse and of uh man such a force of

02:28:51.460 consciousness writing a beast that is this machine this intuitive machine of flesh and sinew that

02:29:02.340 that pairing is epic that pairing is in and of itself one of the great mysteries of our folk

02:29:09.540 and our full consciousness um i think and the other thing is we each find different meanings

02:29:19.860 in the runes that are relevant to us and to our circumstance they don't always have to

02:29:26.660 contradict one another even if different people interpret them slightly differently

02:29:39.780 yeah i think i think that's the the best i got on it most often when i'm contemplating the runes

02:29:46.180 i'm not contemplating them connecting one to another i'm contemplating them in a

02:29:54.180 more randomized order when i utilize runes if i'm writing something that it's dictated by

02:30:01.700 the words that i'm using if i'm using runes for divinatory purposes i'm using them on

02:30:08.900 random draws or random placements so i'm not focused too much on like i said the order of

02:30:16.660 how the one that pre that proceeds and one that follows relate and i think there may be something

02:30:23.700 really amazing to that i think that's cool i just that's not how my experience has been with them

02:30:29.300 at this point i know that's not really an excellent answer but it's just kind of the

02:30:33.940 closest that I can get from where I'm sitting. All right. I've seen a lot of freak out the

02:30:54.520 buttoned up Christians sort of stuff in the folk lately. Will you two please speak on piety and 0.68

02:31:01.440 devotion as opposed to claiming Ausatru to be un-Christian. So if I'm understanding your

02:31:13.660 question correctly, I hope that I am. I think that's really important. And it's amazing because

02:31:25.400 depending on where you're at in your faith, where you're at in who you talk to and who you're

02:31:30.260 involved with, you can pick up on these different currents. Allie, who asked the question, is one of

02:31:36.880 our new apprentice folk builders. And it's interesting what she sees in the groups that

02:31:45.220 she runs in and at her level of interaction that maybe I don't notice in my position as

02:31:52.380 ulterior gothy. I'm having to rely more and more on my folk builders to give me, you know, 0.97

02:31:57.460 word on the street. So that's really interesting. Because I noticed that a lot when I first got

02:32:03.940 involved in Alistair True, and it was a big thing in the 80s and the 90s. It was certainly a thing

02:32:08.360 in the early 2000s. I think we've moved to a very, we've had a lot of maturation on it. But

02:32:14.220 the idea of Alistair True being the unchristian, like what would define Alistair True is how not

02:32:22.900 christian we are and if the christians do one thing then we need to do the opposite thing to be

02:32:30.340 as not christian as possible and it's easy to look at that now and think how silly and it is

02:32:40.980 but i do also see there was a necessary time when we're as a people emerging from christianity to

02:32:49.220 make a to make a very severe separation between the two to you know to make a a uh i think violent

02:32:59.780 states it in a different way but to make a you know extreme break like we're gonna break part

02:33:06.020 ways with all this christian stuff and do our not christian stuff over here and that is a natural

02:33:11.940 process. And I get that. I'm really proud of us as people that we've moved beyond that for the

02:33:20.180 most part. But we can't forget that there's always going to. So I have the the honor and

02:33:29.160 the blessing of being also true now for 22 years. There's a lot of people that have been

02:33:38.480 Ausitru for 22 minutes. And I don't fault those people for having a less mature attitude towards

02:33:48.160 Ausitru than I've been able to develop over two decades. It's really easy to look back at people

02:33:54.780 who are just starting out and not recall that you were once in that spot or that, you know,

02:34:01.240 you had to feel things out for yourself too. And I feel that what I'm really proud of about

02:34:08.440 also true, especially also true of the last decade or more. We very clearly define ourselves by who

02:34:17.660 we are and not by who we aren't. Also true. Isn't about not being Christian. Also true is about 0.98

02:34:25.260 being Ousitre. It's about us celebrating our faith to our gods without comparison

02:34:33.820 to other people's faiths. Now, I realize that in reality, we're going to make comparisons.

02:34:42.820 That's one of the biggest things the human brain does.

02:34:47.660 But when we come back to center and we focus on who we are and what we do, 0.60

02:34:52.080 the measure of something's rightness or wrongness needs to be the Aesir, their will, 0.89

02:35:00.020 our culture, and being the most Aesir we can be, the best loyal to the Aesir that we can be,

02:35:08.900 which is what Aesir means. The uncomfortable for a lot of people, especially people who've

02:35:15.860 had a bad experience with Christianity truth is that the Christianity that Western people

02:35:21.180 have come to know and embrace over the course of time is very, very largely influenced

02:35:26.840 by our folk soul and by the experience of white men and women from Europe and how they

02:35:34.160 practice religiosity. It is much less a stark separation from original Ausitru than it is

02:35:44.480 a uh a mixing and a mingling of also true principles with with hebrew ideologies and

02:35:54.360 stories and there's very much a war there between cultures the the medieval european christianity

02:36:01.660 is very very different than coptic christianity in egypt or some other middle eastern forms of

02:36:07.960 Christianity. And those differences really highlight where our folks hole shines through.

02:36:14.620 But we do our gods a disservice and we do our faith a disservice when we 0.96

02:36:20.780 try to show off how not Christian we are by counterpunching everything that Christians do. 0.99

02:36:32.080 And we make the mistake of, you know, some of that we get right because some of their ideas 0.99

02:36:36.800 ideas are terrible. Some of it we get wrong when Christians happen to do good things that normal, 0.82

02:36:42.180 good, noble people do. Man, Christians take a shower. Well, I'm not taking a shower. 1.00

02:36:47.100 Well, Christians, you know, are nice to their grandparents. That's it. I'm going to kick

02:36:51.080 grandma in the head. It sounds silly, but that's because it is. But that is a mindset that 1.00

02:36:58.980 affected Alistair True much more in years past and that still affects people today. And I think

02:37:04.920 it's really important that we uh we have the discernment to separate baby from bath water

02:37:11.680 uh what are your thoughts swan well i've i've been um blessed with witnessing moments in which uh

02:37:20.320 i've seen it either written or levied in in speech where they refer to the austro folk assembly as

02:37:28.320 like some sort of Christianity in a Viking religion or a Christian Viking or a Mormonism

02:37:36.660 and, or Mormonism also true. I've seen some of these things. I find, I find it really laughable

02:37:41.180 because again, we're, you know, emphasizing the modern and the, the, the Western, uh, cultures

02:37:49.280 of, of who we are. Um, and I think that that's a good thing. Um, and I think Christians do that

02:37:55.740 too, especially in relation to them being from the West, in a lot of their ways. 0.99

02:38:04.460 To say I have a love for Christianity, I would be lying if I said I did. I do argue a lot, 1.00

02:38:11.040 I think, more about the honesty in which I think Europeans who embrace Christianity, 0.99

02:38:17.440 they denounce our faith a lot. And so I try to reveal some honesty in the nature of their 0.99

02:38:24.620 religion and um perhaps some of the things that are are are based around it that they may not even

02:38:31.280 really be aware of um uh but as far as you know when i when i see someone level that you know oh

02:38:40.320 you guys are just like the christian house of true or something like that that that to me just

02:38:45.540 screams that edginess that that rebellion um you know uh i'm not gonna you know wear no tie i'm

02:38:53.680 not going to kneel or, or do any of these, this knee jerk reaction is, it's kind of like, yeah,

02:39:00.980 training, training, uh, an animal based on negative space. Um, and they just desperately

02:39:07.980 are going to try to fill that negative space and then thus become negative. And that's not something

02:39:12.820 we need to do. I don't think any outsider really needs to do that. I think some people have, um,

02:39:18.060 When they get, like you said, bad experiences with Christianity, they do get pulled down.

02:39:22.580 And when they feel a sense of relief and release when they come back to the gods and have a different understanding, that does sometimes whip back.

02:39:32.960 uh and sometimes with good um merit i guess emotionally uh you know feeling um you know

02:39:42.340 tricked or deceived into you know believing this faith from another people that has some of that

02:39:48.960 emotional stuff but if that doesn't equalize out and that's all you are then you got a problem you

02:39:55.160 now you're not it's not about the devotion to the gods it's not about the um the truth of that

02:40:01.140 release it's it's again it's just edginess it's counter signaling for the sake of counter signaling

02:40:06.420 and that's not something you build true general faith i want to speak on another phenomenon that

02:40:11.820 i think this is born out of that i don't think most of the people who are caught up in it

02:40:18.280 conceptualize it this way or probably even agree with what i'm saying but i very much feel this

02:40:25.580 way. First, I think that, you know, teenage rebellion wears very poorly on someone in their

02:40:33.280 50s. We have a couple of generations now of our folk that have built their life around the image

02:40:49.800 of the noble loser um and we saw a lot of that shift into to Alcetru and sometimes they found

02:41:02.800 Alcetru and fixed their life and became amazing other times they were Alcetru and chose that to

02:41:10.120 be a part of their uh their syndrome on this but oh I don't fit in I'm not successful that's because

02:41:18.880 I'm so pagan. No, that's because you're a loser. My family doesn't like me because they're a bunch 1.00

02:41:24.500 of Christians and I do my own thing because I'm a rebel. I'm a Viking. No, you're just socially

02:41:31.200 dysfunctional and can't maintain good relationships. You know, this happens sometimes because people

02:41:37.840 just suck. Sometimes it happens because people feel left behind and instead of doing things that 0.98

02:41:47.940 uncomfortable with them to catch up with their peers they'd rather embrace a lack of success

02:41:53.940 and mask it in some kind of noble pretensions sometimes it's a result of trauma sometimes

02:41:59.780 people have been hurt and they're scared to get hurt again so they justify and they overlay their

02:42:04.900 fear with the veneer of what a badass viking warrior or shield maiden they are

02:42:11.860 but it's really important to me it's essential to me it's why this broadcast is named victory

02:42:16.500 never sleeps it's important to me for us to always try to win and to keep winning and to never rest

02:42:24.820 on what we have but always try to do more and be better we can win we have so many things that we

02:42:33.140 can win at in this life it's not about seeing how spectacularly we can lose and if you set yourself

02:42:42.100 up for failure with a bunch of face tattoos that are scary and t-shirts that say obscene phrases

02:42:48.260 and you build this wall of either anger or scary or just gross around yourself then you have a

02:43:02.420 ready-made excuse when you're not accepted when you don't get a job it's not because you gave a

02:43:08.120 crappy interview or you don't have the skills or because you do a bad job. No, you're fired

02:43:13.600 because you're such a pagan because they just don't like your swastika you have on your face. 0.95

02:43:20.340 No, maybe it's because you're not a good worker. Maybe it's because you don't interact with your 0.80

02:43:27.280 fellow employees well. Maybe it's because you're a jerk to people. But rather than think about 1.00

02:43:32.820 those, you have a ready excuse. You know, oh, people don't like me because they're busy dressing

02:43:37.180 up in their suits and ties and i want to wear a t-shirt with holes in it maybe it's not just

02:43:42.860 about the t-shirt maybe it's about your overall attitude but that's uncomfortable now i've seen

02:43:49.820 this with a lot of different people and i yes i'm being humorous with me making the funny voice but

02:43:58.220 i really mean this and i've seen this with people that i love and that i care about a lot of times

02:44:03.980 it comes from trauma or it comes from guys that may have done some time and they've been locked

02:44:09.420 up and especially if guys did time in prison a lot of years and a lot of years as young men when

02:44:15.340 they're formulating stuff it's very hard to catch up when you missed out on fundamental parts of

02:44:22.380 life that the rest of us had to figure stuff out and to grow up in and if you didn't get that

02:44:28.620 opportunity in the environment you were in it's really daunting to try to catch up it's easier

02:44:36.620 just to wear it literally on your face and act like you've constantly got a chip on your shoulder

02:44:44.220 and it's cool you'll get chicks with daddy issues will be all about you and dudes will be scared of

02:44:50.700 you and whatever but it really stops you from being successful in a lot of your life you're

02:44:57.660 drawing a line saying this is as successful as i'm ever going to be and i'm not going to try

02:45:01.740 for something better and that's that's tragic to me christianity has been very successful

02:45:13.900 people who practice it and who dress nicely and who are economically successful

02:45:19.740 are winning stuff i want us to win stuff too the bible doesn't say you need to wear a tie

02:45:24.700 our lore absolutely says you need to show up to the thing wearing your best

02:45:30.360 our history absolutely says that you need to show up looking your best and that you need to win and

02:45:36.540 be successful so much so that that i feel virtue is our 10th our 10 or victory is our 10th noble

02:45:43.200 virtue um what we're seeing in the christianity that these people are uncomfortable with

02:45:51.620 is success and affluence and winning and an envy that they're not winning and a reaction to it

02:46:04.600 that they're too good to be winning. They're too good to play by those rules.

02:46:09.420 So we're going to drop out. And you saw this, you know, with beatniks and with hippies

02:46:16.980 and with, you know, emo goth people and with a lot of folks that are contrarian to whatever

02:46:25.360 culture is going on. It's easier to celebrate your failure rather than to go back to the drawing

02:46:33.780 board and forge success for yourself. That's a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing for any of us

02:46:39.020 to do. I would like to see our people get beyond that need to embrace the aesthetic of the loser

02:46:48.020 and to instead put on the mantle of the winner.

02:46:57.640 Was not aiming that at anybody. I hope nobody is irritated about that.

02:47:02.200 uh what do you think and this is the last question we have in the queue there may be

02:47:11.800 um maybe some other questions if you guys have more questions please go ahead and ask them if

02:47:18.580 not this might be our last question uh what do you think about the movie the north man

02:47:24.220 and what do you think about the gods fighting each other uh ideas like is shown in the movie

02:47:30.920 of odin versus frayer uh svan have you watched that movie and if so what are your thoughts no

02:47:39.240 i haven't seen the viking show i i saw i think the three quarters of the first episode um i

02:47:49.000 have not watched the northman i think the last movie that i ever saw in relation to the gods

02:47:57.320 was Eric the Viking from like back in the, you know, and again, because again, I'm not a big fan

02:48:10.760 of pop culture. I'm not a big fan of a lot of the movies just in general. I don't see movies

02:48:17.540 often and things like that. But we do see some interesting points when we talk about the gods,

02:48:23.140 the the diet or the the um i guess the the chemistry or the the um the interplay between

02:48:31.860 like ullr and odin or the again uh uh skirnismal when when uh again fray steps into the throne

02:48:43.920 domain of Odin and sits upon Hilskjalf. Again, these are forces interplaying. I think that

02:48:53.860 there is a sense of dominion and then there's transference or stepping in and stepping out

02:49:00.060 in order to attain or move. Again, we were talking earlier about the gods moving to make

02:49:06.660 attainments, whether it's hanging from the tree or stepping down from a heavenly mountain.

02:49:13.920 And so we do see a lot of that interplay in the stories.

02:49:16.880 And I think that what that really is, is these forces that are functioning within a domain or a purpose.

02:49:30.440 They have purpose, but then they shift that purpose.

02:49:32.920 And anytime any great powers move and shift to fill a purpose based on a need, there's always a flux.

02:49:41.120 There's always a kind of a ripple or a sense of things being uneasy or different.

02:49:47.860 And this happens a lot in nature, both physically and metaphysically.

02:49:51.800 And I think that that's what those interplays are being are referring to as far as like the gods openly aggressing towards each other.

02:50:02.500 And again, I haven't seen the movie, so I can't reference if, you know, they had some knock down, drag out fight.

02:50:10.040 Or if they were taking the form of human form and, and like conspiring against each other or something of that nature. Again, we see in the stories, you know, Freyja and Odin, Odin and Ullr or Baldr and, and Haud, depending like if we're talking about Saxo Grammaticus and all that.

02:50:29.820 um we see these these fluxes as things as these cosmic beings interact and oftentimes switch take

02:50:38.220 places create vacuum and then fill there's a lot of movement going on there but to take them

02:50:45.180 literally as fighting it um i don't know i don't want to step into that if i if i haven't seen the

02:50:52.780 movie and and then say they don't you know have pencil fights or what so we've got one more

02:50:59.020 question i think is a really good one um obsidian i promise i'll answer the ones fawn just answered

02:51:04.780 but monk brought up a really good thing in the chat that that i want to speak on too

02:51:10.620 yes it's funny to matt make funny voices about look at me i'm a loser i'm so edgy

02:51:17.020 but realistically i i do want to reiterate this that i

02:51:22.460 I feel bad for those people who are stuck in that because it really is a psychological problem.

02:51:29.920 If you're doing that and you're 20, it's funny. And, you know, I will affirm my funny voice

02:51:35.740 making fun of you. If you're doing it 40 or 50 or even 60, no, I'm really sad that you're in that

02:51:43.940 place mentally and you haven't figured out how to break out of that pattern. And Monk mentioned

02:51:49.640 another circumstance of people that fit into that so earlier i was talking about you know punks or

02:51:55.400 you know people that way that have chosen

02:51:59.560 you know to take on the edgy persona and i've also talked about people who were locked up and missed

02:52:06.200 formative times in their life and are playing catch up and it's very hard to do one of the

02:52:11.160 other groups of people that uh go through something similar to that monk mentioned are

02:52:15.800 our soldiers and marines and guys that uh that served and we're all you know very often we don't

02:52:25.400 you know it's hard to say in my generation we started seeing a lot of people who are now my

02:52:31.160 age that that did serve in when they were very young um other generations didn't necessarily

02:52:36.840 see that or don't get it in the same way but we have a whole lot of the people who

02:52:41.880 saw combat or were deployed it were very very young and in their early stages of their life

02:52:51.500 trying to figure out how life works and how adulthood works they were thrown into a very

02:52:56.980 very specific and sometimes very tragic context and you know monk mentions that you know you get

02:53:04.920 trained up to be a soldier or marine but all too often when the guys come back they don't get

02:53:10.960 trained into how to fit back into society right in in where they should be or you know comparing

02:53:19.280 the situations that they face in quote unquote normal society with those that they faced

02:53:25.440 in um in their career and in their combat experience and it is very similar in a lot

02:53:33.060 of ways because depending on how long somebody has that experience and what trauma they may

02:53:39.820 have gone through, when they come back, there's a gap, there's a separation between, you know,

02:53:47.600 quote unquote, normal folks that are out there being successful in their relationships,

02:53:52.160 in their careers, in their families, in life, and guys that just can't seem to get that figured out

02:53:58.400 because either because they've been broken or because they have trauma that other folks don't

02:54:05.460 understand that they can't process right, or any of those things. And I want to encourage

02:54:17.120 everybody who feels like they're not winning, instead of embracing being a loser and being

02:54:23.160 antisocial or being a hermit or keeping to yourself, fix what you can fix and try to win

02:54:33.200 where you can win because there's so many opportunities for all of us to win and be

02:54:38.740 successful. And it's tragic when people waste their life not doing that. But yeah, Matt makes

02:54:50.300 some funny voices and some of it is laughable, but a lot of it is also very serious and something

02:54:56.680 that I just want better for our people. Back to your question about the Northmen. I did finally

02:55:02.120 see that i know you guys asked on here a lot and you guys finally got frustrated at me and stopped

02:55:06.360 asking because i hadn't seen the movie but i have seen it now i didn't think it was terrible um

02:55:12.600 it was you know it wasn't on an epic scale it was on a much more you know common man kind of scale

02:55:18.920 than i thought it was going to be um i didn't realize that it was a take on you know the

02:55:25.320 original version of hamlet which is interesting um yeah i don't hate it i uh it was dirty and

02:55:37.240 gritty more than it probably needed to be um which i think is all too often a fault of

02:55:44.680 things about that period but yeah i didn't think it was terrible movie um when it comes

02:55:52.040 excuse me when it comes to talking about the gods uh battling amongst each other i think that that is

02:56:00.680 you know like swan said i well i don't

02:56:07.240 to over speculate on that too much i feel is impious to a degree i think that when we see

02:56:14.600 the conflict amongst the gods, it means so much more than, you know, just the interpersonal

02:56:25.160 conflict between two people. It involves so many bigger and cosmic forces, and it tells

02:56:33.280 of a much bigger struggle and a much bigger truth than simply two personalities clashing.

02:56:41.200 But I think when you see that it's, it's very informative for us to learn from.

02:56:47.260 But I don't ever think we should take those.

02:56:51.920 I don't know, in the same way that we would take to two people fighting over over something

02:56:57.260 small and petty, the gods aren't petty.

02:57:00.280 And they fight over, you know, they interact with one another over grand scale, deep things.

02:57:08.660 think that it's always something something deep to focus on um and i know that's not a tremendous

02:57:14.740 answer to the question but you know northman was a movie and it could have been set in any other

02:57:19.380 time and i don't really think it's specific to our faith in that way but here is the question

02:57:24.580 i do think is is intriguing and i know people want to know an answer to so i'm putting out there

02:57:28.900 will you slash are you taking steps to ensure that Sigurheim doesn't turn into a Waco 2.0

02:57:39.220 I would love to join and move out there I'm just concerned about getting the alphabet boys 1.00

02:57:44.620 coming in and causing harm so a couple of things on that first yes that is absolutely on my radar 0.99

02:57:53.640 has been on my radar, not just since day one, but all the days leading up to day one.

02:58:01.540 So I have some thoughts on that.

02:58:03.620 First, as we've seen with Ruby Ridge and with Waco and other incidents in our time,

02:58:15.260 sometimes the alphabet agencies just do bad and shady things they absolutely do

02:58:29.880 um there's a lot of times that they do good things too but there are some times to where

02:58:36.920 they do some terrible things i've got you know i've got some thoughts on the best way to avoid

02:58:42.620 those things one of the things though and this goes into my discussion about winning and losing

02:58:50.220 if we're constantly scared of doing the right things or doing good things

02:58:56.860 doing legal things because we're afraid that some boogeyman in the federal government

02:59:05.420 may come out for us and do something bad to us we're never going to leave our house and we're

02:59:10.380 never going to do anything um we've also seen that the government sometimes disregards laws

02:59:20.860 and just does whatever it wants even if it's illegal and there's no perfect answer that any

02:59:28.460 of us can have that will 1000 mean that that's not ever a possibility so i want to stipulate that

02:59:36.620 there's no 100 guarantee and there can't be our constitution unfortunately isn't 100 guarantee

02:59:42.860 that the government will treat us appropriately but that said there's some things we can do and

02:59:50.380 things that i intend to do first we are going to be wide open and transparent we always have been

02:59:59.020 as the afa and we're going to continue to do that we do that at all of our hofs if people want to

03:00:05.660 check it out and see what we're up to and say hi we're going to be neighborly and friendly and let

03:00:10.220 people come say hi if people drive up and like hey what are you guys doing hey this is exactly what

03:00:16.140 we're doing come take a look because we're proud of what we're doing that's going to be our default

03:00:20.940 policy um being open to the community the other thing is being involved in the community it's been

03:00:28.620 very important to me um at all of our hofs that we're involved in community activity as much as

03:00:33.740 possible, that we try to get involved in charitable things with the community, that we interact with

03:00:38.680 them in a positive way, and that we make ourselves not just not a nuisance and not a problem, but that

03:00:45.720 we make ourselves an active force of being good neighbors to the people that we're around. We're

03:00:51.660 going to be good neighbors at Sigurheim. We're going to be good neighbors. We're going to interact

03:00:57.060 as best as we can with the people in the community. We're not going to put up walls. We're not going

03:01:03.340 you know have armed guards at fences we're not going to do that we're going to be open we're

03:01:09.180 going to live there we're going to be proud and happy celebrating what we do and when people ask

03:01:13.340 us questions we're going to show them and we're going to answer our questions in a prideful and

03:01:18.220 happy way as opposed to none of your business i don't have to tell you because what happens very

03:01:25.020 often when you're secretive first in this day and age if your concern is the alphabet boys well they

03:01:34.220 have access to tons of stuff you don't even know about i think keeping secrets is you know impossible

03:01:40.940 in this day and age or as close to impossible as there is but one of the best things we're

03:01:46.060 not doing anything wrong if we were doing something shady my advice might be really

03:01:51.500 different, but the benefit we have is we're not. I am proud and open about everything we are doing

03:01:57.900 in the AFA, about everything we are doing at Sigerheim. And if anybody, government or not

03:02:05.880 government, is curious or wants to see or wants to know, you can't shut me up about it. I love

03:02:12.700 talking about what we're doing. I would love to show everybody around. I'm going to show everybody

03:02:16.940 as much pictures as i can on social media man i was back in town an hour before i started creating

03:02:24.700 the little slideshow with all of the pictures we took while we were there because i'm happy to show

03:02:28.620 it off so i think having a policy of just transparency and openness and being straightforward

03:02:36.220 is going to be our best bet i think that paired with community with regular and frequent community

03:02:42.780 interaction is also going to help that. But yeah, that's absolutely something that's been

03:02:50.120 thought about, been discussed, and that we're always aware of. I can't, nothing in this life

03:02:56.020 is 100% guarantee, but there's nothing saying things can't happen to you in your house right

03:03:00.960 now if somebody wants to do something nefarious. You can only do the best you can do, and we're

03:03:05.740 going to be completely legal, completely appropriate, great neighbors and good citizens

03:03:11.780 at Sigurheim, just like we are now. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And the truth

03:03:19.240 of that really is a safeguard in a lot of ways of what we're doing. Again, it's not ironclad,

03:03:26.320 But I think it's the best we can get. And we're committed to that.

03:03:33.920 So Cascadia Patriot says over in the thing. So basically, you're going to continue doing what you've been doing.

03:03:40.220 And that's the best thing you can do. Absolutely. Exactly. And succinctly.

03:03:45.880 And that is what has protected us thus far. We've never had a problem with the government.

03:03:51.660 and the reason we've never had a problem with the government, we're not breaking any laws and we're

03:03:55.580 not doing anything wrong. Despite what our detractors say, any of our interactions with

03:04:01.440 the government have been very positive because, you know, they watch us. They're aware of what

03:04:09.220 we're doing. They watch us all the time. Of course they do. But they've even told us in the context

03:04:15.120 that they've dealt with us before that they've, you know, they've kept an eye on us. They've seen

03:04:20.520 what we do and that we are much more likely, in their opinion, to be the victims of a hate

03:04:25.580 crime than the perpetrators. And that's because we're nice folks doing perfectly legal and

03:04:31.300 good things. So yeah, there's that. Okay, got another question. I've got another couple

03:04:47.880 of questions. Myth, dirty word or appropriate to use in reference to our lore? Svan, what are your

03:04:58.700 thoughts? I've never saw it as a dirty word. I know that the usage of the word metanarrative

03:05:06.780 has come about as a popular use as well. I believe, I'm not saying that he's the first

03:05:15.060 has ever used it in relation to anything, but I know in relation to Ausatru, I remember that was

03:05:22.840 kind of thrown around by Edward Thorson as the usage of a word is meaning greater narrative of

03:05:32.420 an understanding. But I also, I mean, myth has power. Myth has a joyousness to it. Myth has a

03:05:41.720 mystery and a happiness to it that I think has been drawn down because of, again, the greatest

03:05:52.740 way to convince people that your propaganda is correct is to tell everyone or to tell them that

03:05:59.140 everyone else is propaganda and what you're telling them isn't. I think that a lot of

03:06:04.460 people that push that kind of ideology, they're the ones really dragging the magicalness of myth

03:06:15.080 down. I've never seen it as a dirty word. Stories are such a keystone to the structure of the

03:06:26.820 passing of the knowledge of our gods. But that's just my personal opinion on it.

03:06:32.620 Yeah, myth isn't a bad word. I think that sometimes, depending on who you're talking to, there could be a misunderstanding. You've got to read the room. If people are inherently thinking that myth equals not true, then I think that you need to alter what you say.

03:06:48.220 Sometimes if you sound more wordy and you say mythos, it makes it seem scholarly and not like other people think that a myth might mean, but it's just semantics. Read the room. I don't think myth is bad and I use it often.

03:07:02.620 So here's a question. And first, I want to salute the person for having the courage to ask the question.

03:07:09.340 When I started these, not just Victory Never Sleeps, when I started doing my monthly live things where I was taking questions,

03:07:17.700 a lot of it was to squash or a lot of the hope of it was to squash unfounded rumors or backroom gossip that people have.

03:07:30.180 people are going to do that and it's fine, but I'd like them to do it on real information and

03:07:35.620 be able to ask questions rather than to just assume negative things. So the following question

03:07:41.540 from Patrick is, so forcing out members of the AFA who are either interested in Noriana's

03:07:48.680 publishing or are also Noriana members isn't sketchy or wrong? Curious. No, it's not sketchy

03:07:57.640 wrong uh first we're not forcing out afa members who are interested in noriana's publishing that's

03:08:05.400 not true that hasn't happened that's not a thing um but yeah we're part in ways with members that

03:08:13.000 want to be members of the noriana society absolutely that's not sketchy it there's

03:08:19.080 nothing sketchy about it i'm wide open about it it's not not hidden it's not um

03:08:27.640 clandestine. It's not anything untoward. And is it wrong? Well, no, it's not. As a church,

03:08:36.060 we have an obligation to have a degree of orthodoxy on what we believe and what we don't

03:08:42.800 believe. If you believe what we believe, you cannot also believe what the Noriana Society

03:08:50.760 increasingly believes. They are mutually exclusive. You know, you can't be a Catholic

03:08:58.540 and a Baptist. You can't, it doesn't work that way. You can't be, practice also true in the AFA 1.00

03:09:08.260 and also agree with the ideas that, quite frankly, many of which are heretical in the Noriana

03:09:18.140 a society. Reasons for, at first, as a statement, it is neither sketchy nor wrong. It is completely

03:09:27.360 an appropriate thing for us to do. But that aside, there's reasons for it. And some of

03:09:32.400 the reasons are, well, there are many. And I talked to Mark Puryear yesterday for about

03:09:44.680 an hour. And as I always say, and I'm going to continue to say, I like Mark a lot. I think Mark

03:09:51.320 is a great guy. I consider Mark a friend of mine. I hope he considers me the same. I would invite

03:09:58.620 him to any one of our events. I would give him a hug. I think he's a great guy. I also think that

03:10:04.360 the Noriana Society, due to its democratic nature, isn't synonymous with Mark Puryear. I think that

03:10:11.200 noreana society is a very toxic group of people that come at our faith in a very inappropriate 0.99

03:10:21.280 way i don't think the piety is there that i mentioned is so essential earlier i don't think

03:10:28.400 our gods are treated as real living beings i think that it is treated as a

03:10:35.440 object to put in a petri dish and study in a perverse scientific way to where more weight

03:10:45.240 is placed on an obscure partial passage in an obscure tome rather than the living faith that

03:10:53.700 has been devoted to serving our Isir for the last 50 years. There's a number of things that

03:10:59.880 that we and that I disagree with within our society. But also one of the biggest things

03:11:06.360 is the backward contrarian nature of them as a group and the folks that are associated with them. 0.93

03:11:15.780 It has for many years now been very heavily weighted by people who have left the AFA or have

03:11:24.340 been removed for the afa or have parted ways with the afa and are openly hostile to us

03:11:30.580 they have very often populated those circles and it's not so much that they're

03:11:38.500 pro-practicing also true the noriana way it's that they are anti-practicing also true the afa way

03:11:45.300 and yeah we think it's a it's a toxic uh toxic group of people and we no longer want to have 0.74

03:11:51.380 those people involved with us in in our inner guard do you have anything to say on that's fine

03:11:59.700 oh no like i said my my uh interactions with some of the members um you know uh

03:12:08.180 i think debate wise there's i think it's great to have these uh moments of talks and debates about

03:12:16.180 the lore about the gods uh in in relation to the lore or things like that um but outside of that i

03:12:24.020 mean if those interactions again some of those members that i'm speaking of um uh or in the

03:12:30.660 past in particular and my dealings with them have been they did deform into a level of uh you know

03:12:39.460 you're not doing this right or you're doing this wrong and it needs to be done this way

03:12:44.020 And then they broke off or broke away.

03:12:46.520 So, I mean, pushing people out versus what I've seen more of is like people kind of peeling off or leaving or fracturing off because of desire to go elsewhere, do things differently was what I caught most of, you know, in those relationships.

03:13:05.960 Or the opportunity was laid out to come and be at events and do things that were really close and really near to them.

03:13:14.020 and they didn't show up, and I don't know if they, I mean, again,

03:13:18.740 I don't think they would have been met hostily, especially at that time.

03:13:23.800 Nobody was, I don't think that there was any sort of, like, backhandedness.

03:13:28.700 Again, other than that, just having conversations and things based on the lore

03:13:35.200 and, you know, kind of across the table, going back and forth about ideas and things.

03:13:40.200 that's well so i'm curious i don't see that as nefarious i want to treat it i want to treat

03:13:47.320 people who ask questions on here with respect and i want to ask them what i think is really

03:13:52.120 important that we should do in general is when people ask us stuff we should

03:13:58.680 keep our eyes open and don't be fooled but i think we should treat things with the benefit of the

03:14:03.960 doubt and assume people are asking in the nicest possible way because we're speaking to an audience

03:14:09.560 and not just the one person asking the question uh patrick goes on to say in that in the chat room

03:14:15.400 we're parting ways but not forcing them out legit doublespeak no it's very clear people who

03:14:22.200 are interested in norina materials and purchase norina books we are not kicking out if you are

03:14:29.800 in the noriana society we are asking you to either be in the noriana society or in the afa

03:14:35.960 and to choose one if you choose the noriana society then yes i suppose we're kicking you out

03:14:42.280 no part of anything i'm saying is trying to do double speak or or be you know be unclear i want

03:14:49.320 to be crystal clear he says the noriana society isn't mutually exclusive with your ideas but

03:14:54.920 thanks for making this all crystal clear i do my best then he uh cliff asks and we'll get to this

03:15:03.240 in a second he wants to know if we can expound on some of the difference of belief between the

03:15:08.200 noriana society and the austral folk assembly we'd be happy to do that patrick says clifford

03:15:13.320 he can't because noriana society is an academic group and this dude matt wears christian garb for

03:15:19.240 his sermons um i don't i've explained that i think you're probably talking about the stoles

03:15:27.880 and that has an ancient pagan root and isn't an exclusively Christian garb. The folks at

03:15:34.520 graduation are not wearing it in a Christian context. It was certainly established from

03:15:39.480 ancient Roman pagans from an educational perspective, and it originally had nothing

03:15:46.400 to do with Christianity. I'm not sure which sermons, but yeah, I do wear my stole when I 0.86

03:15:51.840 practice the rights of our faith and we'll continue to do so and then he says there's no

03:15:58.420 also true the afa way bro listen to yourself bro not sure what this this is what i'm saying

03:16:07.420 the norena society and the people it attracts are very negative and toxic people the afa doesn't go

03:16:14.640 on any norena podcasts and try to insult them or get in the middle of the business quite frankly

03:16:21.140 we have better things to do. And if that's something that you want to do is be involved

03:16:24.740 with them, go ahead and do that by all means. In the meantime, Sfond, can we expand on some

03:16:32.220 of the points that we differ with the Noriana guys on? Because I don't think that some folks

03:16:37.340 are very clear on exactly what that looks like. Well, mainly that I think there are interpretations

03:16:47.500 of the, again, like you said, pieces of lore that are, we disagree upon, I think, predominantly

03:16:59.220 like in cosmological structures. I think that the stating of the way cosmology interacts

03:17:09.940 with each other is important for us in the Ossetra Folk Assembly, and the way that we

03:17:14.900 interact with the gods the way that they're placed but then there are some things that i have read

03:17:20.740 and seen that place those um effects very differently so if we're talking about um you

03:17:29.300 know kind of re reconstructing things there's a lot of reconstructing of placement of uh the gods

03:17:37.700 the the wells the the tree there there's this kind of restructuring that's kind of going on

03:17:44.500 and it's it's based on um interpretations of these translations but um they go very far off from what

03:17:54.180 our faith has clearly established our belief system in the cosmological view um i remember

03:18:02.260 having some debates uh with some uh i i didn't i don't know if they're members actually to be

03:18:07.300 honest with you to be completely clear i don't know if it's just somebody who was asking a

03:18:12.180 question or if they were like a devout follower of some of this society um i don't know but you

03:18:19.840 know we're discussing about the nature of the gods in their in their movements through the

03:18:26.660 cosmological like worldview and universe and um i found it like it was being radically placed in

03:18:34.520 a different context and i could understand perhaps the necessity for it but to go against

03:18:40.340 other ideas, it seemed like they were against it because, oh, things were wrong. Snorri was a

03:18:47.940 Christian, so he was placing the world tree on its side in order to show that the life of the gods 0.84

03:18:55.520 was dead and that the Axis Mundi, there's like deep, like crazy roundabout semantics to things

03:19:03.720 that was like, I don't know, it just seemed kind of twisted to create a different reconstructing

03:19:11.560 of things. And again, you know, if you interpret something in the Adas in a way, and you practice

03:19:19.920 House of Truth that way, I don't think that absolutely negates things. But to say that other

03:19:27.740 people are wrong about the way that they're doing this, or that the whole of our spiritual

03:19:32.540 organization is seeing you know the heavenly concepts the middling concepts the underworld

03:19:37.900 concepts uh the you know the bridging between those the structuring of what heimdall might mean

03:19:44.280 as a threshold uh you know prism of that which is brought from above and down below uh a lot of that

03:19:52.240 that uh concepting of the gods in a in a sense of a functioning living religion are kind of tossed

03:19:59.200 out like the baby with the bathwater because it doesn't apply in the Adas because of this

03:20:05.180 translation. I felt there was a lot of that placed. So that was a huge amount of it. I think

03:20:12.300 the other thing is ritual and ceremonial orthopraxy. There was a lot of critiques thrown at,

03:20:22.140 i guess i would say it was me at the time about orthopraxy and how um there is you know these

03:20:30.120 things like uh you know the harrow and uh the accoutrements of like a stole uh even in and of

03:20:38.000 itself um these things were kind of levied as i think materialistic arguments um but you know

03:20:44.680 stating simply as it is that this is the way we have we are doing things we have been doing things

03:20:50.340 our society recognizes these things if i show up to do a funerary rite at a hospital and i'm wearing

03:20:56.900 a stole yes it has the runes on it but our society even though they're not out of truth they totally

03:21:03.220 get it and it's not entirely in a christian context it's just that some people think it is so uh but

03:21:11.380 that doesn't mean the entirety of it i don't know there's a lot of stuff like that that i remember

03:21:15.860 uh kind of being tossed around so the fundamentals and there's a lot of there's a lot of points

03:21:22.980 in their research that we don't agree on and some of those are really important and some

03:21:28.020 of them are relatively minor um what i think that the biggest um i guess theme is is that

03:21:40.100 folks in the noriana society um and mark purtier to what i you know according to the conversation

03:21:47.060 i had with them and you know the things that i've read and the things that i hear

03:21:55.300 and i've mentioned this throughout this broadcast and i think it's kind of

03:21:58.500 fitting that this book ends the conversation a little bit

03:22:02.980 to them it very much is an equation and a research and a math project

03:22:09.140 um the right way to practice also true to them is only determined by studying ancient sources

03:22:20.420 and figuring out how ancient people practiced also true because apparently there's been no

03:22:28.100 it's not a living faith it's a dead faith that we're studying about that used to exist

03:22:34.400 and with those folks it's as though we haven't been practicing alsa true for the last 50 years

03:22:42.800 and that's unfortunate the entirety of

03:22:47.880 and i i don't speak icelandic so i don't know what the alsa knowledge would be but also true

03:22:56.720 is loyalty to the isere and it's based on relationships alsa true is based on a gifting

03:23:03.020 cycle and our relationship with our gods. We have people who are the founders of the

03:23:10.920 Asatru Folk Assembly and the people who are still with us that have been practicing Asatru

03:23:18.000 for 54 years, that have built solid, decades-long interaction with our gods through being part 0.97

03:23:26.240 the gifting cycle through pious worship and practice to disregard that is a travesty to to

03:23:39.840 history is disrespectful to us and to the iser and it limits our people and it puts these concrete

03:23:50.160 shoes on us that we can never be more or do more because apparently also true died thousands of 0.97

03:23:57.440 years ago and and that's that's that we can never advance we can never move forward we can't build 0.92

03:24:04.720 relationships with our gods because the only way to do it right is to ape what ancient people did

03:24:11.280 but without their social context, and by using very obscure passages as if the exception made

03:24:21.000 the rule and not the other way around. And that's absolutely fundamentally opposed to the way the

03:24:27.460 Austro Folk Assembly practices. We believe that our gods deal with us as people, and that we deal

03:24:35.500 with them as individuals, and that we exchange gifts and energy with them through relationships

03:24:41.420 over our time as Asatruar, that we tie into the relationships of our fellows, of those who've

03:24:47.880 come before us, of our Gothar, and ultimately of Steve McNallan to have a series of relationships

03:24:56.760 and alliances and bonds that we've built over a very long time. We practice Asatruar today.

03:25:04.740 We practiced it yesterday. We practiced it, you know, as the Astro True Folk Assembly in our

03:25:10.620 current form for 28 years now. We'll be practicing it for another 28 and then 28 after that.

03:25:18.040 But we're moving forward with a living relationship with the divine. And it's very unfortunate

03:25:24.900 that these folks aren't doing that. But what I've seen largely with the people in the Narayana

03:25:31.700 society is a professional society of critics complaining about how those who do, do things

03:25:41.060 as if they know better. But their knowledge is based on other people's knowledge that they wrote

03:25:47.140 down, as opposed to experience and doing as a true for themselves. That being the case, that's

03:25:55.140 why it's so fundamentally different. And if a group of people are constantly complaining and

03:26:01.300 constantly telling folks that the way we are doing something is wrong and spreading dissension,

03:26:08.260 then we're better off not having that group of people involved in our membership.

03:26:14.100 At the end of the day the New Oriental Society is made up of about 20 people

03:26:18.260 and of that I'm only aware of I think one that's currently a member of the Ask True Folk Assembly.

03:26:23.860 So that's where that is and that's our big fundamental differences and I'm not sure if that

03:26:31.300 that clarifies or not.

03:26:36.400 I'm looking over on the chat and

03:26:38.600 our guest is upset at us.

03:26:48.520 He mentions that a bunch of the Universalists out there have a lot of

03:26:52.880 Hoffs and that a bunch of groups in Germany have Hoffs.

03:26:56.660 And I'd be really curious to learn about those. I haven't seen those.

03:27:01.300 I'd be fascinated to know about the Hoffs over in Germany.

03:27:04.580 That would be great if, you know, he could link some pictures of those up or whatever.

03:27:09.560 I would really love to see that.

03:27:11.320 I'm unaware of universalists having Hoffs in the same context that we have.

03:27:17.300 There have been people for a really long time that have a shed oftentimes erected in their

03:27:23.700 backyard or something like that, that they refer to as their Hoff.

03:27:29.380 And that's really cool.

03:27:30.340 that's and I mean that that's neat but it's really different than recognizable the houses

03:27:38.840 of worship like the AFA has and I think there's a difference there I'm not saying maybe these

03:27:43.280 people have you know amazing huge spectacular Hoffs I haven't seen them so I'm unaware of that

03:27:49.360 um but I you know it was brought up in the fact that I one of our supporters on the side

03:27:59.180 mentioned that we're winning and the other guys need to get over it. And there's a practical

03:28:04.620 thing there to be said. We are winning. The gods have blessed us tremendously with victories and

03:28:11.620 with successes. And I hope that they continue to do so. And I'm going to do everything in my power

03:28:16.980 to try to receive those blessings and have those blessings for our folk and to honor our gods in

03:28:25.380 such a way that they will bless us. One of the responsibilities that comes with that,

03:28:31.680 that comes with being the big dog, as it were, on the block, is that it's our responsibility

03:28:38.240 to protect the integrity of our faith and what it means to be ostrich. And when we, you know,

03:28:46.080 do anything to support contradictory ideas of what ostrich is or should be,

03:28:54.000 when we do anything that takes away from what we seriously believe is the will of the isir

03:29:00.000 then we're we're not living up to our responsibility and i'm not living up to my responsibility 0.57

03:29:06.000 and i don't want to do that and sometimes when you've got to you know draw a line in the sand

03:29:10.800 and say this is good this is not it makes people upset and i know that's a thing and i'm it's

03:29:16.960 unfortunate that that's a thing but that's a responsibility that comes with being the

03:29:22.000 the Asheria Gothi of the Church of the Issyria Midgard. And it's what I will do and continue

03:29:29.520 to do the best of my ability. I'm trying to see if there's any other stuff over in the

03:29:43.320 side or any more questions before we call it a night um again i you know it seems like the theme

03:30:07.160 is on the side that, you know, our Hoffs aren't an indication of success, that success isn't an

03:30:13.480 indication of winning or success. And also that success isn't an indication of, of right nor

03:30:19.880 wrong. And I think that's not true. I think any of the pagan Aryan cultures of the past thought

03:30:27.180 that winning was absolutely a sign of the God's favor. And that success was a sign of our God's

03:30:33.120 favoring them. That's academically pretty solid. It's very convenient for me right now to say that

03:30:44.840 because we are doing so well. But it doesn't remove the fact that we are experiencing a lot

03:30:52.220 of success. And I think that that goes along with the trust and the responsibility that I just

03:30:58.940 mentioned. I think, were we to not take a hard line on things that are fundamentally wrong in

03:31:06.580 the approach to dealing with the gods, I think we may start to see some of that success diminish

03:31:11.340 for a variety of reasons, but one of which I think it might be displeasing to our gods,

03:31:16.500 and I wouldn't want to do that in any way. But I really did mean it when I said it earlier,

03:31:22.520 thank you for straight up asking the question. I know a lot of people don't.

03:31:26.780 um so i do i know nothing backhanded i think that some of the comments have been kind of rude and

03:31:34.040 rubbed me the wrong way or whatever i'm sure some of the things i've said might have rubbed you the

03:31:38.120 wrong way but i do appreciate you coming on and asking i respect that um i um go ahead i i kind

03:31:46.420 of lost uh that you know in the movement because it's happened a couple times where the chat kind

03:31:51.400 of stopped moving for me. And I did see one last thing before I was kind of like put at a standstill

03:31:58.240 in the, in the comments, um, about, uh, something about the AFA way sounding very cultish, but I

03:32:03.900 think it's intellectually dishonest to say that any group, uh, doesn't have their way or their

03:32:10.460 tribe doesn't have their way. Um, you know, I, I know that cause I, I, I have some of the books

03:32:18.300 from from uh the norena society in which they distinctly define a way their way uh the afa has

03:32:26.540 a way it is not i think it's kind of backhanded to say that sounds cultish but it's kind of like um

03:32:34.940 you know again we we don't our our way is not false but everyone else's way is like no at least

03:32:45.580 you know if you can turn around and say no this is our way this is the way we do it this is the

03:32:49.180 way we've you know predicated it and been very open and honest about that that doesn't sound

03:32:54.540 cultish at all it sounds honest it's it's it's very easy to do that with linguistics and you know

03:33:02.620 a a government that you like is an administration a government that you don't like is a regime

03:33:08.220 mean the same thing but have different implications for folks a religious organization that you that

03:33:14.060 you like is a is a church is a religion is legitimate one that you don't like it's a cult

03:33:20.540 well technically if you go back to the etymologies i suppose the words kind of mean the same thing

03:33:25.340 but the implications are certainly different we did have a last question coming in uh how do you

03:33:30.380 teach men their feminine right brain hemisphere healthy function i'm not i'm trying to put that

03:33:40.460 together and see exactly what you're asking there because i want to ask i want to answer the the

03:33:44.380 question you mean to ask it's fine do you have any thoughts on that uh i remember where there

03:33:50.060 was a conversation about the left brain right brain in a a couple podcasts back and uh again

03:33:58.380 i don't know if there's a lot of gravity placed on that uh where you know that we're starting to

03:34:05.100 find out that different parts of the brains aren't but if you're talking about like a duality of

03:34:10.460 um, I guess like thought, masculine and feminine thought. Um, I think it in, I was recently

03:34:22.220 discussing this with someone a couple of days ago. I think that one of the biggest points of,

03:34:27.480 um, the masculine cultivation or the ideal of masculinity, uh, first and foremost bases itself

03:34:36.320 around, you know, the idea, it's the masculine sense of not caring about what others think

03:34:48.920 is, I think, a huge masculine aspect that starts to formulate action.

03:34:54.820 It starts to formulate the idea of winning, the idea of achieving, the idea of building,

03:35:00.720 The idea of structuring these things are built around first not caring what other people think, but focusing on what you can do and what you need to do and what you want to do and what you want to build and formulate and not necessarily really caring about what others think or to move that, you know, move those obstacles out of the way if they're impending or whatever they might be.

03:35:29.140 and gravitate out of that and, you know, attain victory on what you want to do. I think that's

03:35:36.600 a masculine ideal that is, if you think about it at first, it sounds kind of not an in-depth

03:35:46.980 response, but if you really think about it, like, do I care about what these people think?

03:35:54.740 no i want to attain what i want to attain so i move forward and that will predicate a lot of

03:36:01.900 the masculine thought and deed that you need in order to cultivate that i think on the other side

03:36:10.540 when we're talking about the feminine um i think and again speaking just from my observations is

03:36:17.680 is, uh, about understanding the, uh, power of worth or personal worth. Um, I think that

03:36:26.960 in the feminine sense, if women, um, base themselves off of cultivating the confidence

03:36:33.240 of their personal worth, they then can move forward in the world with a great amount of 1.00

03:36:39.300 power and grace and in, uh, the poise in the way that they deal with people. Um, if they see

03:36:46.540 themselves not as, you know, uh, like women who oftentimes objectify themselves because they're

03:36:52.720 seeking, um, affirmations from others. They are oftentimes the ones that are often most offended

03:36:58.880 when people, you know, show them, uh, attention. It's just a matter of whether it's wanted or

03:37:05.860 unwanted. And I think that's because they have a shaky sense of their self-worth. So, uh,

03:37:11.700 The masculine side is projected forward by removing obstacles and manifesting deed.

03:37:19.020 And I think the feminine is about reflection inward and reclaiming and hardening the resolve of their self-worth and what they deserve and what they believe to see themselves as.

03:37:38.380 And to that, those two interplaying together becomes very, very interesting.

03:37:43.760 And we see this again a lot in the stories of our folk.

03:37:48.600 You know, when we see it in the gods, we see the worth of something being handed to the will of the other.

03:37:58.240 the asenya or the etan bride or the maid is holding the knowledge, sees the worth of it,

03:38:08.040 and it must be attained and then utilized by the masculine. We see this being interplayed over and

03:38:15.000 over again. Again, to the earlier question about charming of the plow is, again, the earth has its

03:38:21.520 worth already there. It understands its worth. It is the plow that must move things aside to

03:38:29.340 manifest what it needs to create and not consider, you know, or hold itself up in wondering what's

03:38:39.460 going to happen. Or sometimes it is simply about, no, I don't care. I'm going to move forward and

03:38:45.180 I'm going to grasp and attain and create and willfully manifest. And so I think that if you

03:38:52.740 take those two concepts and hold them in, whichever one you're trying to cultivate, whether it's,

03:38:58.460 you know, a more assuredness in the feminine or a more assuredness in the masculine,

03:39:03.320 those two points, if you ask yourself, am I caring too much about what other people think?

03:39:08.720 that you know that's that's again reaffirming that masculine or do i understand the true nature

03:39:16.100 of my self-worth that's again cultivating the feminine and from those two simple questions

03:39:21.440 you can truly and organically begin to train and cultivate those aspects

03:39:30.340 to the folks over in the chat room uh back when i was younger we would drink the purplesaurus rex

03:39:37.980 So that is my Kool-Aid of choice. If I'm going to be serving you up, Kool-Aid. To the question, and I'm thinking about it, and I hope that I'm getting the question right that you're asking.

03:39:51.240 if you're asking how we teach men to connect with their feminine side or to incorporate that into

03:39:58.040 their life what i think is um important to that in the way that we practice also true is is a couple

03:40:07.480 fold um often in our lore when people talk about their their philgia we see it from a

03:40:16.840 male perspective and it's personified as a female um we don't see a lot in the inverse but i think

03:40:24.120 there's some assumption that for for women that feel good spirit is personified by a male

03:40:31.960 the idea that we connect with that as men

03:40:38.440 helps balance those things one of the other things that's really important and connected i feel

03:40:44.440 is the interaction that we seek with our desir the female spirits of our ancestors that watch

03:40:53.100 over us as a man i can't like access my inner womanhood i don't think that's a thing but i can

03:41:05.280 reach out to those women of my line that interact with me and ask for their guidance

03:41:10.300 for their support for their love and for their wisdom and i think that does help add that feminine

03:41:17.960 into into my life and into my thought process also connecting with our goddesses

03:41:24.860 i think is a good way to come back to center at the end of the day or beginning of day or whenever

03:41:32.100 you do it and reconnect with something that that is feminine and and interact in that way and i think

03:41:43.220 that does a great deal to balance to balance that masculinity in a in a holistic in a right way

03:41:51.300 and i think that women can can do something very similar when they they look to their fathers and

03:41:56.340 their ancestors their male ancestors or when they interact with with the gods i think it

03:42:02.180 connects us in in really a special way that way and i found that to be very helpful um

03:42:12.180 get to arguing with the dude now we have some more questions popping up that's good i hope

03:42:16.980 i hope that was worthwhile i i run into this so the next question's on this too

03:42:20.660 um patrick as he was signing off expressed how unfortunate it was that we can't just get along

03:42:31.420 with the doran society and they can't just get along with us and uh we look like the bad guys 0.88

03:42:37.500 because we're the ones finally saying all right this far and no more we're done with it it's

03:42:43.220 a lot of people want us to appear like the bigger person and to get along with folks

03:42:50.860 and to not punch right, not all those things. And in broad strokes, I absolutely agree with that.

03:42:57.060 I don't ever want to come over on here and start bashing people or speaking negatively of people

03:43:02.440 without context. But it's a balance that I'm trying to do. And I hope folks appreciate it,

03:43:10.020 even if they don't agree with it. I don't want to be that guy that punches right or that

03:43:16.120 criticizes other people that are generally in similar areas as us. I don't want to criticize

03:43:21.840 people in general. But I do think it's very important that I ask that I answer questions

03:43:27.320 honestly, because people are looking to me to provide them an answer, either, you know,

03:43:33.720 as advice or as direction or just as clarification. And I think that I have a

03:43:39.460 responsibility and it's very important to me to answer those questions honestly and sometimes

03:43:45.040 unfortunately it does mean that the answer is is negative towards a person or a group of people

03:43:51.560 and it's not I don't like to take swings at people that's not what I'm trying to do but I am trying

03:43:58.100 to answer your questions on this so the next question is what do you think about the wolves

03:44:01.940 of Vinland. They made something similar to Sigurheim with their Ulfheim. So a number of thoughts.

03:44:14.980 Again, this is eerily similar to something I said a minute ago. I really like Paul Wagner.

03:44:21.120 I like him as a man. I have a lot of respect for him in his interactions he's had with me.

03:44:26.060 um i'll tell you this when i first became also your guilty there was a number of of controversies

03:44:33.620 and you know people coming after us and complaining about us and us getting dropped from a platform or

03:44:39.740 whatever and whenever any controversy arose um paul would send me a private message you know not

03:44:45.700 for for anybody else just to say hey you know respect what you guys are doing stay strong if

03:44:51.620 need to help us out and let me know and that meant a lot and he did that on i think two different

03:44:56.100 occasions i really appreciate that um also i'll say this i think paul is um the most potent left

03:45:04.260 hand magician that i've ever seen a lot of folks in those groups talk about various chaos magic and

03:45:11.780 left hand things but i don't see their results in real life if you're this grand left hand magus

03:45:19.380 you'd think you'd have your wizard castle and you'd do your stuff.

03:45:22.640 And I don't see that most of the time with Paul.

03:45:25.280 Absolutely.

03:45:26.120 And I haven't caught up with him and I don't know what he's up to lately.

03:45:30.180 So I don't know if this is still the case, but he was able to establish

03:45:34.680 the things he wanted with his life to establish a lifestyle

03:45:37.880 where he could afford to do the things that he dreamed of and live the life

03:45:41.380 he wanted to live on his terms with devoted people around him

03:45:46.540 and his getting their their land in I think it's in Lynchburg that's great I don't know what all

03:45:55.080 they've done on their land I know that they built a hall there that they built themselves

03:46:01.980 and I think that's awesome it sounds like what they did there was really good and when they had

03:46:11.400 some attention to go back to an earlier question. I was told that there was some FBI guys there that

03:46:17.480 were, you know, curious as to what was going on. One thing Paul did that I found really inspiring

03:46:22.340 and has helped me in my thought process on it was, you know, he went up to their car and he said,

03:46:27.240 hey guys, if you're here because of us and you're curious, why don't you come on up to

03:46:31.160 Ulfheim and you can have dinner with us tonight? And they got to kind of see what was going on

03:46:35.700 there. And, um, I think that was a real smart, a real smart move. Um, as far as the wolves

03:46:43.180 themselves, I don't, I haven't heard about them in operation for a long time. So I don't know

03:46:49.780 what they're doing currently. The big deal in what we were doing versus what they're doing is

03:46:54.120 we're embracing, uh, order and the gods of order and what they're doing is embracing chaos. And

03:47:01.840 we can't stand with that, obviously. I don't know how seriously they take some of that. They were

03:47:11.100 very invested in, you know, cultivating a dark, spooky image that way. And a lot of their logoing

03:47:18.540 involved, you know, Jormungand and Fenrir. And again, we can't be loyal to the gods of order

03:47:25.940 and supporting the forces of chaos, so we have a similar situation with the Wolves, I guess,

03:47:32.240 in the sense that we can't occupy the same space that way, but I do have a lot of respect for Paul,

03:47:37.880 and that's all I know about him lately. I haven't heard a lot of news on them lately. What are your

03:47:41.920 thoughts, Swan? Yeah, I, again, bringing back to that last thing that I saw, I mean, they have their

03:47:49.140 way, we have our way. And those ways are often very different. But I recently had, so he's not,

03:47:58.840 he's not a member of the Astro Folk Assembly, but he had the pleasure of attending a bloat

03:48:04.940 that was held, I believe it's Matthias. And he spoke of it being very powerful, very moving.

03:48:15.300 uh it was unique in their way there was elements there uh it was held at night and it was held with

03:48:22.420 the the torches and there was drumming and and some uh you know things of that nature i don't

03:48:27.820 think that there was like a it was like not a family uh element there but it was moving and and

03:48:34.900 and powerful and i think uh what is it cathartic in the sense that it was definitely it punctured

03:48:43.540 um something that he needed in his life which was he felt um you know just in a malaise so

03:48:51.560 it was interesting to hear about that and their um the way that they do things that he he just

03:48:58.640 kind of described it a little bit and i and i was and he didn't know a lot like he uh about

03:49:03.700 i was a true just in general so he he was describing to me about how the horn was passed

03:49:08.520 And I was like, yeah, I'm very familiar with all of that. And, um, so it was, it was, uh, it was truly an interesting thing. Um, as far as that goes, I mean, I feel like they are extremely, you know, tribal and they, they have a deep and tight knit inner guard. So that leads to a lot of, I think people wondering what they do and why they do.

03:49:30.580 And I've never had any, like, brooches of conversation or any theosophical, you know, like, debates or questions or whatever.

03:49:44.820 I don't think that they really tally themselves in that field.

03:49:49.860 But, you know, beyond that, I mean, I've heard more misconceptions about them than anything else.

03:49:57.640 So and I don't really try to entertain those too much.

03:50:01.760 You know, I'll say this, and this is kind of an interesting anecdote, I guess, that that speaks well of them.

03:50:09.320 A lot of their foundation is in that tri-state eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey area, or at least it was for a time.

03:50:20.300 and uh way back when and this is i mean this is probably seven or eight years eight nine years

03:50:27.540 ago now maybe but they had uh patricia hall um a tremendous a woman that i respect tremendously

03:50:35.080 spiritually um they had her there and they had her there as a woman you know in her i think at

03:50:40.580 the time in her late 60s in this you know very male dominated masculine manner boomed setting

03:50:47.940 they had pat come in and perform a ritual there one time and they were very very respectful of

03:50:54.640 her and treated her very well and she thought what they were doing was really powerful so um

03:50:59.200 there's that i think that's kind of interesting and it's always made me you know have a little

03:51:04.240 bit of respect for the way they handle themselves on that um i think that's the last question it's

03:51:11.560 last question in the, in the lineup is, I think it's the last question there is. Thank you guys.

03:51:23.120 I know we got derailed a little bit there on, on stuff for a bit with answering guys' questions.

03:51:28.800 I hope it was, hope it was useful. Appreciate you guys participating. As always, appreciate

03:51:36.160 you guys listening and asking questions and makes for some of our very best shows having uh our

03:51:42.880 special guest witness faun harrell here to educate us on the lore and break stuff down and share his

03:51:51.520 uh his wisdom and his experience with us thank you so much for being here it's fun thank you very

03:51:55.840 much all right well uh until next week uh it's been great talking to you guys um hail the gods

03:52:04.880 Hail the folk. Hail the AFA. Remember, victory never sleeps.

03:52:34.880 We'll be right back.

03:53:04.880 Thank you.

03:53:34.880 Thank you.

03:54:04.880 Thank you.

03:54:34.880 Thank you.

03:55:04.880 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - January 26, 2023

1⧸25⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 29 - Heimdallr

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